'A  BARBAR^COUlNURSE'S    HALL 
rfEDlCALjflBRARY 


LOANED  BY 


THE    IMMIGRANT    TIDE 
ITS  EBB  AND  FLOW 


BY  EDWARD  A.  STEINER 

UNCLE  JOE'S  LINCOLN 

Cloth 

NATIONALIZING  AMERICA 

Cloth 

INTRODUCING  THE  AMERICAN  SPIRIT 

Cloth 

FROM  ALIEN  TO  CITIZEN 

The  Story  of  My  Life  in  America. 
Cloth 

THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE — ITS  EBB 
AND  FLOW 

Cloth 

ON  THE  TRAIL  OF  THE  IMMIGRANT 

Cloth 

AGAINST  THE  CURRENT 

Simple  Chapters  from  a  Complex  Life. 
Cloth 

THE  BROKEN  WALL 

Stories  of  the  Mingling  Folk. 
Cloth 

THE  MEDIATOR 

A  Tale  of  the  Old  World  and  the  New. 
Cloth 

TOLSTOY,  THE  MAN  AND  His  MESSAGE 

A   Biographical   Interpretation.     Revised  and 

enlarged. 

Cloth        

THE  DOCTOR  DOG 

Boards    .    .    .   ,    

THE  PARABLE  OF  THE  CHERRIES 

Boards    

THE  CUP  OF  ELIJAH 

Idyll  Envelope  Series.     Decorated  . 


A  CZAR  IN  EMBRYO 

Southern  Slavic  chief,  who  exchanged  his  symbols  of  authority  for  pick 
and  shovel  at  "  Guinea  Hill." 


THE 

IMMIGRANT  TIDE 
ITS  EBB  AND  FLOW 


EDWARD  A.  STEINER 

Professor  in  Grinnell  College,  Iowa 
Author  of  "On  the  Trail  of  the  Immigrant"  etc. 

ILLUSTRATED 


NBW  YORK       CHICAGO       TORONTO 

Fleming  H.  Revcll  Company 


LONDON 


AND 


EDINBURGH 


Copyright,  1909,  by 
FLEMING  H.  REVELL  COMPANY 


New  York:  158  Fifth  Avenue 
Chicago:  17  North  Wabash  Ave. 
London:  21  Paternoster  Square 
Edinburgh:  75  Princes  Street 


LIBRARY 

RNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
SANTA  BARBARA 


To 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Bayard  Henry t 

Americans  : 

In  whom  blend  all  the  nobler 
strains  which  made  the  past 
illustrious,  and  who  are 
awake  to  the  peril  and  the 
opportunities  of  the  hour, 

This  book  is 
cordially  inscribed 


Foreword  to  Sixth  Edition 

THE  gates  of  Ellis  Island,  which  had  all 
but  grown  rusty  during  the  war,  swing 
free  again,  and  the  drear  procession  of 
aliens  seeking  a  home  is  lengthening  into  unprece- 
dented proportions.  The  Great  War  emptied  the 
steerage,  and  the  Peace  of  Versailles  is  filling  it  to 
overflowing.  Burdensome  as  life  was  prior  to  the 
war,  terrible  and  full  of  anxiety  during  the  bitter 
conflict,  the  awaited  peace  unloosed  new  breeds  of 
Apocalyptic  horses:  War,  revolution,  famine  and 
pestilence;  from  which  all  those  who  can,  are  es- 
caping. 

Whether  these  who  are  coming  to-day  are  better 
or  worse  than  those  who  preceded  them  in  their 
flight  from  Europe,  it  is  difficult  to  say.  They  do 
come  in  greater  haste,  victors  and  defeated  alike, 
completely  severing  their  contact  with  the  Old 
Country,  in  which  they  have  suffered  the  bitterest 
disillusionments,  and  therefore  they  may  be  reck- 
oned as  permanent  elements  of  our  population. 

Whether  it  is  wise  to  admit  them  in  such  large 
numbers,  or  at  all,  is  a  serious  question ;  there  can 
be  no  doubt  that  those  who  come  should  be  received 
with  greater  discrimination,  and  their  way  into  the 


a      FOREWORD  TO  SIXTH  EDITION 

life  of  America  most  carefully  directed.  The  suf- 
fering they  have  endured,  the  more  or  less  complete 
breakdown  of  their  own  national  life,  the  hopeless- 
ness of  their  economic  conditions,  ought  to  make  it 
easier  to  assimilate  them;  though  their  pessimism 
toward  national  and  religious  ideals,  their  natural 
revolt  against  the  system  under  which  their  calami- 
ties came  upon  them,  may  make  them  critical  to- 
ward America,  and  wary  of  mere  phrases,  no 
matter  how  lofty. 

Nothing  has  happened  during  the  war  to  temper 
my  optimism  regarding  most  of  the  immigrants 
who  came  here  prior  to  the  war,  into  the  usual  un- 
favourable environment  of  our  industrial  life. 
With  remarkable  readiness  they  responded  to  the 
call  of  the  country  not  yet  theirs,  and  among  the 
most  conspicuous  for  loyalty  and  bravery  were 
those  who  not  only  were  alien  born,  but  who  were 
called  upon  to  fight  their  own  kinsmen,  from  whom 
they  had  been  separated  but  a  few  years.  What- 
ever there  may  have  been  of  reluctance  on  the  part 
of  many  of  them,  and  disloyalty  on  the  part  of  a 
very  few,  nothing  justified  the  after-war  hysteria 
of  fear,  and  the  furore  for  Americanization  with 
which  they  were  met  on  all  sides.  That  we  were 
able  to  meet  our  foe  with  such  unity  and  deter- 
mination was  as  much  a  surprise  to  our  allies  as 
it  was  to  our  enemies. 

We  are  a  nation,  in  spite  of  the  heterogeneous 
make-up  of  our  population;  and  nationalism,  as 


FOREWORD  TO  SIXTH  EDITION      3 

such,  is  perhaps  safer  in  the  United  States  than  it 
is  elsewhere.  We  know  now  that  we  ought  not  to 
wait  for  the  exigencies  of  war  to  train  for  national 
life  and  service,  and  the  new  influx  gives  us  the 
opportunity  to  make  practical  all  our  plans  and 
carry  out  our  resolutions.  Teaching  the  new- 
comers the  English  language,  which  seems  to  have 
been  the  only  practical  idea  evolved,  will  give  us 
the  opportunity  to  have  them  come  into  immediate 
touch  with  the  spirit  of  America,  provided  such 
teaching  is  in  the  hands  of  men  and  women  who 
represent  that  spirit  at  its  best  and  not  at  its  worst. 
The  war  has  enlightened  us  upon  many  of  the 
national  problems  of  Europe ;  it  has  given  us  some 
insight  into  the  character  of  the  various  groups  of 
people,  and  we  have  come  into  very  close  relation- 
ships with  many  of  them,  through  well-directed 
relief  organizations;  so  that  the  men  and  women 
who  are  to  be  faced  are  not  strangers  to  us,  but 
bound  to  us  by  a  common  world  tragedy. 

This  book,  originally  appearing  some  years  prior 
to  the  war,  may  serve  the  purpose  of  enlarging  our 
understanding  and  increasing  our  faith,  both  of 
which  we  shall  need  in  the  new  and  larger  task  be- 
fore us.  I  cannot  refrain  from  reaffirming  my 
faith  in  the  American  people,  and  that,  in  spite  of 
the  fact  that  more  than  any  other  people,  their 
inner  life  has  suffered  from  the  war.  They  are 
still  the  hope  of  the  world,  and  when  they  recover 
their  poise,  and  fear  and  suspicion  give  place  to  a 


4      FOREWORD  TO  SIXTH  EDITION 

rational  faith,  they  will  go  about  the  task  of  mak- 
ing and  shaping  a  nation,  not  by  a  repetition  of 
Europe's  fatal  experiment,  of  assimilating  alien 
elements  by  the  butt  of  a  gun  or  the  blind  force  of 
arbitrary  laws,  but  by  the  good  example  of  their 
citizens  and  by  an  enlightened  sympathy. 

I  have  never  intended  that  any  of  my  books 
should  encourage  laxness  in  the  matter  of  admit- 
ting aliens  to  this  country,  or  be  an  influence  in  the 
making  of  too  liberal  immigration  laws.  I  have 
meant  to  be  an  interpreter  of  the  values  of  the 
immigrant  who  is  here,  and  to  make  it  easier  for  the 
native  born  to  establish  those  contacts  which  are 
necessary,  if  we  are  to  assimilate  the  vast  numbers 
who  are  here ;  and  the  one  and  only  reward  which 
my  books  have  brought  me  is  the  assurance  that  I 
have  accomplished  that  for  many  of  my  readers. 
This  edition  is  sent  out  in  the  hope  that  it  may 
make  that  contribution  at  a  time  when  a  broken 
world  needs  to  be  knitted  together  and  when  the 
hurts  and  bruises  of  the  war  need  to  be  healed. 

E.  A.  S. 
Grinnell,  Iowa. 
November  16, 


PREFACE 

"  ~¥~"\UT  your  hand  on  this  cable,"  the  captain 
1—^  said;   and  a  dozen  hands  grasped  it 
JL       before  it  sank  back  into  the  sea.     Our 
fingers  felt  no  thrill  or  shock,  for  we  had  touched 
only  the  incasing  insulation.     Then  the  captain 
told   its  length,   stretching  along    the    ocean's 
depths,  its  weight  and  cost ;  but  the  figures  fall- 
ing upon  our  ears  roused  no  emotions ;  for  they 
gave  no  idea  of  the  cable's  value  to  society. 

On  shore  we  were  taken  into  a  dark  chamber 
and  there  saw  flashes  of  light,  which  lived  but  a 
moment ;  yet  each  spark  was  a  letter,  holding 
some  hidden  meaning,  revealing  some  vital 
truth.  Here  the  imagination  was  stirred  and 
the  mighty  significance  of  the  cable  compre- 
hended. 

There  are  two  ways  in  which  to  reveal  the 
import  of  those  vital  connections  between  the 
continents,  as  established  by  the  immigration 
of  European  peoples  to  America.  One  way  is 
to  record  its  volume,  measure  its  fluctuations, 
classify  the  different  groups  and  statistically 
determine  the  value  of  this  movement  to  them ; 
to  trace  the  effect  upon  its  sources  and  its  signifi- 
cance to  the  country  which  receives  them. 

5 


6  PREFACE 

The  state  of  New  York  and  the  government 
of  the  United  States,  through  their  Immigrant 
Commissions,  have  attempted  to  do  this  from 
the  statistical  standpoint  with  material  gathered 
by  observers,  more  or  less  skilled.  The  difficulties 
involved  in  this  method  are  very  great,  espe- 
cially if  the  result  is  to  furnish  a  test  of  the  de- 
sirability of  one  race  or  nationality  over  another, 
or  determine  its  value  to  our  civilization.  A  race 
may  be  homogeneous  in  its  historical  or  racial 
consciousness,  but  heterogeneous  in  its  cultural 
development  This  is  true  of  the  Slavs,  the 
Latins  and  the  Semitic  peoples  who  make  up 
the  bulk  of  our  immigrant  population. 

Not  only  is  there  a  number  of  well  denned 
racial  groups,  but  each  group  needs  to  be  sub- 
divided, and  those  subdivisions  in  turn  have  many 
divisions ;  for  every  mountainside  has  its  own 
traditions  and  each  valley  holds  different  ideals. 
For  instance:  I  know  of  one  Slav  village  in 
Hungary  in  which  illegitimacy  is  unknown  ;  yet 
within  two  or  three  miles  there  is  a  village  in 
which  it  is  the  rule  rather  than  the  exception. 
I  know  some  villages  in  the  Carpathians,  so  re- 
mote from  civilization  that  the  inhabitants  have 
not  yet  learned  how  to  make  bread  with  yeast, 
and  I  know  other  villages  in  the  same  locality  in 
which  are  culinary  artists  who  make  a  cake  hav- 
ing national  fame. 

A  man  may  be  a  Polish  peasant  and  be  a  semi- 


PREFACE  7 

barbarian  or  he  may  be  on  the  same  cultural 
level  as  the  German  "  bauer  "  at  his  best 

The  statistical  method  is  of  value  ;  but  it  must 
be  exceedingly  painstaking,  and  even  then  I 
doubt  that  it  can  serve  in  all  cases  the  purpose 
for  which  it  is  intended. 

I  have  therefore  chosen  the  second,  the 
interpretative  method.  It  sees  the  sparks  in  the 
dark  room,  it  interprets  the  flying  flame  and 
feels  the  influences  on  both  sides  of  the  sea. 
It  crosses  and  recrosses  the  ocean  with  these 
human  cables  which  bind  together  the  conti- 
nents ;  it  listens  to  their  stories  and  records 
them,  hesitatingly  draws  conclusions  and  un- 
dogmatically  tries  to  teach  some  lessons. 

In  the  first  part  of  my  book  I  have  tried 
to  show  the  influences  of  the  returned  immi- 
grant upon  his  peasant  home  and  his  social  and 
national  life.  In  the  second  part  I  interpret  the 
relation  of  various  races  to  our  institutions,  their 
attitude  towards  them  and  their  influence  upon 
them. 

In  all  I  have  told,  I  have  aspired  to  be  an  in- 
terpreter and  not  an  enumerator ;  a  mediator  and 
not  a  critic;  I  have  desired  to  create  contacts 
and  not  divisions ;  to  disarm  prejudice  and  not 
give  it  new  weapons. 

In  this  book,  as  in  all  the  others  I  have  written, 
I  am  indebted  to  my  wife ;  not  only  for  doing  all 
the  tedious  tasks  such  work  involves,  but  also  for 


8  PREFACE 

inspiration  and  the  creation  of  an  atmosphere  in 
which  I  could  write  in  superlative  terms  of 
American  ideals. 

I  wish  to  acknowledge  the  courtesy  of  the 
editors  of  the  Outlook  and  the  Review  of  Reviews 
in  permitting  me  to  reprint  portions  of  this  book. 

I  heartily  thank  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  of  Pennsylvania 
and  Mr.  E.  B.  Buckalew,  its  efficient  State  Secre- 
tary, for  the  opportunity  to  gather  material  in 
that  state  and  in  Europe ;  the  young  men  who 
made  up  the  Pennsylvania  Expedition  for  the 
Study  of  Immigration,  who  were  helpful,  joyous 
comrades,  and  the  trustees  of  Grinnell  College, 
Iowa,  for  a  generous  leave  of  absence. 

E.  A.S. 
Grinnell,  Iowa, 


CONTENTS 

PART  I 
WITH  THE  OUTGOING  TIDE 


I. 

"  THEY  THAT  Go  OUT  IN  SHIPS  "     . 

'5 

II. 

THE  PRICE  THEY  PAY     . 

34 

III. 

A  MURDERER,  MARY  AND  AN  HONORARY 

46 

IV. 

REFLEX  INFLUENCES        *        .        . 

•r" 
62 

V. 

OUR  CRITICS  .        ,.,  '     *V     .»  .     , 

77 

VI. 

THE  DOCTOR  OF  THE  KOPANICZB       «,. 

93 

VII. 

"  MOSCHELE  AMERIKANSKY  "    . 

IO2 

VIII. 

"  NOCH  1ST  POLEN  NlCHT  VERLOREN  " 

112 

IX. 

THE  DISCIPLES  IN  THE  CARPATHIANS 

124 

X. 

THE  GUSLAR  OF  RAGUSA          . 

138 

XI. 

WHERE  THE  ANGEL  DROPPED  THE  STONES 

152 

XII. 

"THE    HOLE    FROM    WHICH    YE  WERE 

DIGGED  " 165 

PART  II 
WITH  THE  INCOMING  TIDE 

XIII.  PROBLEMS  OF  THE  TIDE  .        .        .        .185 

XIV.  THE  SLAV  IN  THE  IMMIGRANT  PROBLEM  203 

XV.  THE  SLAV  IN  HISTORIC  CHRISTIANITY        .  215 

XVI.  FROM  EPHRATA  TO  WHISKEY  HILL   .        .  227 

XVII.  FROM  THE  LOVCZIN  TO  GUINEA  HILL         .  242 

9 


io  Contents 

XVIII.  THE  JEW  AND  THE  CHRISTIAN  .        .        .     259 

XIX.  THE  JEW  IN  THE  IMMIGRANT  PROBLEM       .     276 

XX.  FROM  FIFTH  AVENUE  TO  THE  GHETTO     .     290 

XXL       FROM    LAKE    SKUTARI   TO   LAKE  CHAU- 

TAUQUA  kx  300 

XXII.  THE  PROTESTANT  CHURCH  AND  THE  IMMI- 

GRANT        .        .        .        .        .        .     311 

XXIII.  TWENTY-FIVE  YEARS  WITH  THE  NEW  IMMI- 

GRANT          329 

XXIV.  FROM  CHAOS  TO  COSMOS          .        .        .     348 

APPENDIX  I  (Classification  of  the  New  Im- 
migrant Groups) 359 

APPENDIX    II    (Net   Immigration  to  the 
United  States  1899-1908)    .  .     362 

APPENDIX  III  (Industrial  Depression  and 
Immigration)       .....     364 

APPENDIX  IV  (Suggested  Changes  in  Im- 
migration Laws) 366 

INDEX 368 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

Faring  pcgt 

A  CZAR  IN  EMBRYO        .  ....  Title 

DIRTY  MARY  DURING  THE  PERIOD  OF  TRANSITION  .      50 

TRIKST 62 

A  CONTRAST  IN  HOMES 71 

THE  MARKET  SQUARE  IN  CRACOW  .  .  .  .  112 
AT  THE  FOOT  OF  THE  TATRA  MOUNTAINS  .  .  135 
COAST  OF  DALMATIA  .  .  .  .  .  .138 

WHERE  THE  ANGEL  DROPPED  THE  STONES  AND  Now 
DROPS  DOLLARS 158 

Two  TYPES  OF  POLES 207 

RUTHENIANS  .  .  .  .  .  .  .224 

THE  SLAVIC  HOME  IN  HUNGARY  ....  236 
THE  SLAVIC  HOME  ON  WHISKEY  HILL  .  .  .  236 
A  JEW  OF  THE  POORER  TYPE  .  .  .  ,276 

A  JEW  OF  THE  FltfER  TYPE 276 

ALBANIANS 300 

FACULTY  AND  AMERICAN  STUDENTS  AT  MISSIONS- 
HAUS,  KATTOWITZ 318 

SLAVIC  WOMEN 352 

GENERAL  AND  MRS.  RICIOTTO  GARIBALDI  AT  THE 
FOOT  OF  His  FATHER'S  MONUMENT  IN  ROME       .    356 


if 


PART  I 
With  the  Outgoing  Tide 


I 

"THEY  THAT  GO  OUT  IN  SHIPS" 

**  ^m  "V  O  really  nice  ladies  smoke  cigarettes, 
1  papa  ?  "  my  young  daughter  asked  of 

JL-^    me  perplexedly,  awaiting  an  answer. 

"No,  I  don't  think  they  do,"  I  replied  hesi- 
tatingly, the  passing  of  severe  judgments  not 
being  much  to  my  liking. 

"  Do  really  nice  ladies  drink  whiskey  ? "  the 
young  interrogator  continued.  This  time  I  an- 
swered with  more  assurance. 

"No.  Really  nice  ladies  do  not  drink 
whiskey." 

"  But,  papa  dear,  so  many  ladies  in  our  cabin 
either  drink  or  smoke,  and  I  think  they  are  very 
nice." 

My  little  woman  is  perhaps  a  better  judge  of 
human  nature  than  her  Puritanized  papa ;  for 
going  into  the  smoking-room  of  the  Italian 
steamer  on  which  we  had  embarked,  I  saw,  in- 
deed, a  number  of  women  smoking  and  drink- 
ing and  pretending  to  enjoy  both,  with  that 
pharisaic  air  of  abandon  which  convinced  me 

'5 


16  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

that  they  were  "  really  nice "  ladies.  They 
were  "  sailing  away  for  a  year  and  a  day,"  and 
were  celebrating  their  liberation  from  the  con- 
ventionalities of  their  environment  by  "being 
quite  European,"  as  one  of  them  expressed  it. 

Ladies  who  smoke  cigarettes  and  drink  cock- 
tails in  the  smoking-room  of  an  ocean  steamer 
cannot  expect  that  the  gentlemen,  whose  domain 
they  have  invaded,  will  wait  for  an  introduction 
before  beginning  a  conversation,  and  soon  I  was 
deep  in  the  discussion  of  the  aforesaid  cigarettes 
and  cocktails,  as  pertaining  to  ladies  who  are 
"really  nice."  One  of  these  ladies  was  from 
"  ye  ancient  and  godly  town "  of  Hartford, 
Conn.,  and  her  revered  ancestors  sleep  in  the 
Center  Church  cemetery,  all  unconscious  of  the 
fact  that  "  The  better  set,  to  which  I  belong," 
quoting  the  descendant  of  the  revered  ancestors, 
"  smokes  and  drinks  and  breaks  the  Sabbath." 
"  And  swears  ?  "  I  asked. 

"  No ;  but  we  do  say :  Dum  it,"  she  replied, 
inhaling  the  smoke  as  if  she  were  a  veteran, 
but  betraying  her  novitiate  by  the  severe  attack 
of  coughing  which  followed. 

"  Well,  I  am  not  up  to  it,  quite,"  she  remarked. 
"  You  see  I  didn't  begin  till  my  senior  year  in 
college,  and  gave  it  up  during  the  earlier  years 
of  my  married  life." 

Then  I,  a  college  professor,  who  has  lived 
these  many  deluded  years  in  the  belief  that  not 


"THEY  THAT  GO  OUT  IN  SHIPS"     17 

even  his  senior  boys  smoked,  except  perhaps 
when  no  one  was  looking — gasped  and  became 
speechless.  Seeing  me  so  easily  shocked,  she 
tried  to  shock  me  more  by  telling  tales  of 
social  depravity,  of  divorces,  remarriages  and 
more  divorces,  of  which  she  had  one ;  until  my 
speechlessness  nearly  ended  in  vocal  paralysis. 

I  did  not  find  my  voice  again  until  a  gentle- 
man from  Boston  who  "never  drank  in  Boston," 
but  who,  it  seemed,  departed  from  that  custom 
to  an  alarming  degree  on  shipboard,  helped  me 
to  recover  my  lost  organ,  by  launching  forth  into 
a  tirade  against  the  immigrant,  that  ready  scape- 
goat for  all  our  national  sins. 

Upon  the  immigrant  the  Boston  man  laid 
the  blame  for  the  degeneration  of  America  and 
the  Americans. 

"  What  can  you  expect  of  our  country  with  this 
scum  of  the  earth  coming  in  by  the  million? 
Black  Hands,  Socialists,  and  Anarchists  ?  What 
can  you  expect? 

"  The  Sabbath  is  broken  down  by  them  as  if  it 
had  never  been  a  day  of  rest.  They  drink  like  fish, 

they  live  on  nothing "  and  he  went  on  with 

his  contradictory  statements  until  the  well-known 
end,  in  which  he  saw  our  country  ruined,  our 
flag  in  the  dust,  liberty  dethroned  and  the  Con- 
stitution of  the  United  States  trampled  under  the 
feet  of  these  infuriated  Black  Hands,  Socialists 
and  Anarchists. 


18  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

Through  the  open  door  from  the  steerage  be- 
low came  the  murmur  of  voices  from  a  thousand 
or  more  passengers,  crowded  in  their  narrow 
space,  too  narrow  for  even  scant  comforts  ;  yet 
in  the  murmur  were  long,  cheerful  notes. 

A  mixture  of  sounds  it  was.  Weird  snatches 
of  songs  from  the  Greeks,  the  mandatory  call  of 
the  Italian  lotto  players  who  seem  never  to  tire  of 
their  half  innocent  gambling,  and  the  deep,  gut- 
tural notes  of  various  Slavic  groups,  telling  the 
story  of  the  hard  fight  for  money  in  the  strange 
country. 

Above  these  sounds  came  the  wailing  notes  of 
a  lonely  violin,  played  by  an  Hungarian  gypsy, 
who  was  artist,  vagabond,  business  man,  beggar 
and  thief.  His  playing  was  intended  to  lure 
pennies  out  of  the  pockets  of  the  poor ;  failing  in 
that,  he  meant  to  help  himself.  It  would  not 
have  been  the  steerage  if  the  voices  of  children 
had  not  been  heard  in  all  their  crescendos  and 
diminuendos ;  nor,  indeed,  would  it  have  been 
the  steerage  if  bitter  cries  had  not  come  from 
those  who  could  not  restrain  their  grief,  although 
long  ago  they  had  ceased  to  be  children.  This 
ship  carried  not  a  few  such,  who  had  left  our 
land  beaten  by  many  stripes ;  poor  and  sick  and 
ready  to  die. 

A  Boston  man  who  has  once  broken  through 
his  icy  crust,  especially  if  that  crust  be  melted  by 
hot  drink,  can  speak  long  and  unctuously,  and 


19 

my  wrath  had  time  to  gather,  and  grow  thick  as 
a  cloud  around  my  brain.  Even  before  he  had 
quite  finished  speaking,  I  blurted  out  in  very 
unacademic  language : 

"  I'll  bet  you  five  dollars,  that  among  the 
thousand  steerage  passengers  on  this  ship,  you 
will  not  find  one  woman  who  smokes  cigarettes, 
drinks  cocktails,  has  had  a  divorce  or  contem- 
plates having  one." 

It  was  a  reckless  challenge  to  make,  but  my 
wrath  was  kindled. 

Confusion  was  added  to  my  anger,  however, 
when  the  man  from  Boston  said,  with  a  reproach- 
ful glance  :  "I  am  no  sport  and  I  don't  bet  I 
am  a  church-member."  Then  he  called  for 
another  cocktail,  and  I  sought  the  lower  deck, 
over  which  hung  the  afterglow  of  a  sunset,  rare 
on  the  Northern  Atlantic,  even  in  June. 

The  noises  on  the  steerage  deck  had  almost 
ceased.  Most  of  the  children  were  in  their 
bunks,  the  lotto  players  found  the  light  too  dim 
to  read  the  numbers  on  their  cards,  the  gypsy 
fiddler  continued  to  wail  out  lamentations  on  his 
instrument ;  while  the  Greeks  squatted  unpictur- 
esquely  on  the  very  edge  of  the  forecastle,  watch- 
ing the  waves.  No  doubt  the  gentle,  bluish 
green  /\eld  some  distant  promise  of  the  glory  of 
their  Mediterranean. 

As  I  descended  the  steps  I  looked  into  a  sea 
of  faces,  friendly  faces,  all.  To  my  "  Buon 


20  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

Giorno,"  there  was  a  chorus  of  "  How  do  you 
do  ?  "  from  Slavs,  Latins  and  Greeks  alike,  and 
in  but  a  few  moments  there  was  a  rather  vital 
relation  established  between  the  man  from  the 
cabin  and  the  men  in  the  steerage. 

That  is  to  me  a  perpetual  wonder  ;  this  open- 
ing of  their  lives  to  the  inquisitive  eyes  of  the 
stranger.  Why  should  they  so  readily  disclose 
to  me  all  their  inmost  thoughts,  tell  me  of  what 
they  left  behind,  what  they  carry  home  and  what 
awaits  them  ?  There  is  no  magic  in  this,  even  as 
there  is  no  effort.  All  I  am  sure  of  is  that  I 
want  to  know — not  for  the  mere  knowing,  but 
because  somehow  the  disclosure  of  a  life  is  to  me 
something  so  sacred,  as  if  knowing  men,  I  learned 
to  know  more  of  God. 

Of  all  the  pleasures  of  that  journey ;  those 
starry,  never-to-be-forgotten  nights,  the  phos- 
phorescent path  across  the  sea ;  the  moonlit 
way  from  the  deeps  to  the  eternal  heights,  the 
first  dim  outlines  of  the  mighty  coasts  of  Portugal 
and  Spain  ;  Capri  and  Sorrento  in  the  setting  of 
the  Bay  of  Naples — above  them  all,  is  the  glory 
of  the  first  opening  of  strange,  human  hearts 
to  me,  when  "  How  do  you  do,"  from  that  gentle 
chorus  of  voices  answered  my  "  Buon  Giorno." 

"  What's  your  name  ?  "  I  turned  to  a  friendly 
Calabrian  whose  countrymen  had  encircled  me 
and  one  after  another  we  had  shaken  hands. 

"  My  name  Tony." 


"THEY  THAT  GO  OUT  IN  SHIPS"    21 

"  Have  you  been  a  long  time  in  America  ?  " 

"  Three  year,"  he  answered  in  fairly  good 
English,  while  a  friendly  smile  covered  his  face. 

"  Where  have  you  been  ?  " 

"Tshicago,  Kansas,  Eeleenoy,  Oheeo." 

In  pretty  nearly  every  place  where  rails  had 
to  be  strung  in  that  vast,  encircling  necklace  of 
steel ;  where  powder  blasts  opened  the  hidden 
fissures  of  the  rocks  ;  wherever  his  sinuous  arm 
could  exchange  its  patient  stroke  for  American 
dollars. 

"  Do  you  like  America?" 

11  Yes  ! "  came  a  chorus  of  voices.  "  Yes  ! " 
And  the  faces  beamed. 

"Why  are  you  going  back?"  And  I  looked 
into  the  face  of  a  man  whom  no  one  would 
have  taken  for  an  Italian,  but  who,  too,  was  from 
Calabria. 

"  Mia  padre  and  madre  is  in  Calabria.  They 
are  old.  I  am  going  home  to  work  in  the  field." 

"  How  long  have  you  been  in  America  ?  " 

"  Twelve  years."  That  accounts  for  the 
changed  look. 

"  Where  do  you  live? " 

"  In  Connecticut.     Among  the  Yankees." 

"  Do  you  like  the  Yankees  ?  " 

"  Yes,"  and  his  smile  grew  broader.  "  Yes, 
good  men  ;  but  they  drink  too  much  whiskey — 
make  head  go  round  like  wheel.  Then  Yankee 
get  crazy  and  swear."  And  he  shook  his  head, 


22  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

this  critic  of  ours,  who  evidently  did  not  believe 
that  "  really  nice  "  ladies  or  even  "  really  nice  " 
gentlemen  should  drink  whiskey,  overmuch. 

"  Why  do  you  go  back  ?  "  And  this  time  it 
was  a  diminutive  Neapolitan  whom  I  addressed. 
His  face  wore  a  beatific  smile. 

"  Him  sweetheart  in  Neapoli."  Some  one  ven- 
tured the  information,  and  confusedly  he  ac- 
knowledged his  guilt,  while  everybody  laughed. 
He  was  going  home  to  marry  Pepitta  and  when 
times  grew  better  they  would  come  back  to 
Pittsburg. 

"  Don't  you  get  homesick  for  Neapoli  in 
Pittsburg  ?  " 

"  Nop,"  he  replied.  "  Me  citizen,  American 
citizen,"  he  repeated  with  proud  emphasis. 

"  What  is  your  name  ? "  I  asked  as  I  shook 
hands  with  my  fellow  citizen  who  had  foresworn 
his  allegiance  to  the  King  of  Italy  and  plighted 
it  to  Uncle  Sam. 

Proudly  he  pulled  out  his  papers.  I  looked  at 
them  and  they  almost  dropped  from  my  fingers  ; 
for  they  were  made  out  to  "John  Sullivan." 
When  he  saw  my  astonishment  he  said :  "I 
change  name.  Want  to  be  an  American.  My 
name  used  to  be  Giovanni  Salvini." 

At  the  edge  of  the  ever-increasing  circle  I  saw 
my  friends,  the  Slavs,  and  I  reached  out  my  hand 
to  them.  It  was  grasped  a  dozen  times  or  more, 
by  Poles,  Slovenes  and  "  Griners,"  as  they  are 


11  THEY  THAT  GO  OUT  IN  SHIPS  "     23 

called,  because  they  come  from  the  Austrian 
province  of  Krain.  They  were  less  cheerful  than 
the  Italians.  They  were  returning  home  because 
of  the  hard  times,  many  of  them  with  empty 
pockets,  some  of  them  with  modest  savings. 

There  were  Croatians,  a  few  Dalmatians  and 
many  Bulgarians  and  Serbs,  who  for  some  reason 
are  the  least  successful  among  our  Slavic  toilers. 
They  were  all  in  rags,  looked  pinched  and  half 
starved  and  told  their  hard  luck  story  with  many 
embellishments. 

A  great  many  stalwart  young  fellows  were 
going  back  to  join  the  army ;  for  the  emperor 
had  declared  amnesty  to  all  who  had  left  their 
country  before  serving  their  term  in  arms.  One 
could  well  afford  to  be  patriotic  when  the 
king  forgave  and  when  times  were  hard  in 
America. 

Some  of  the  Southern  Slavs  had  marched  up 
in  the  scale  of  social  life  ;  had  become  machinists, 
petty  foremen  and  taskmasters  over  their  own 
kinsmen.  They  knew  English  fairly  well  and 
seemed  to  have  acquired  some  better  things  than 
mere  bank  accounts. 

An  old  gentleman  from  Lorain,  Ohio,  was  go- 
ing home  to  die,  and  to  die  in  poverty,  because 
the  hard  times  struck  at  the  roots  of  his  business 
and  he  was  too  old  to  labour  in  the  mills.  An- 
other went  back  to  claim  a  fortune,  and  asked  me 
for  the  loan  of  a  dollar,  which  he  would  be  sure 


24  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

to  send  back  as  soon  as  his  fingers  touched 
the  waiting  wealth. 

The  circle  received  constant  additions,  for  our 
laughter  and  banter  reached  down  to  the  dreary 
bunks,  and  many  of  their  occupants  came  up  to 
listen.  Women  brought  their  half-asleep  chil- 
dren and  I  drew  on  my  stock  of  sweets.  Even 
the  more  reticent  women  talked  to  "  the  man," 
and  told  him  things  glad  and  sad.  A  Polish 
woman  was  the  spokesman  of  her  group. 

"  We  are  going  back  to  the  Stary  Kray  (the 
Old  Country).  America  ne  dobre  "  (not  good). 

"  Why  is  it  not  good  ?  " 

"The  air  ne  dobre,  the  food  ne  dobre,  the 
houses  ne  dobre." 

Nothing  was  good. 

"  We  came  to  America  with  red  cheeks,  like 
the  cheeks  of  summer  apples,  and  now  look  at 
us.  We  are  going  back  looking  like  cucumbers 
in  the  autumn." 

Yes,  their  cheeks  were  pale  and  pinched  and 
their  skin  wrinkled.  How  could  it  be  otherwise  ? 
They  had  lived  for  years  by  the  coke  ovens 
of  Pennsylvania,  breathing  sulphur  with  every 
breath ;  their  eyes  had  rarely  seen  the  full  day- 
light and  their  cheeks  had  not  often  felt  the 
warm  sunlight.  America  "  ne  dobre." 

And  yet  something  must  have  seemed  good 
to  them  ;  for  they  wore  American  clothes.  Long, 
trailing  skirts,  shirt-waists  with  abbreviated  sleeves 


"  THEY  THAT  GO  OUT  IN  SHIPS  "     25 

and  belts  with  showy  buckles.  All  of  them  had 
children,  many  children  of  varying  sizes,  and 
among  the  children  not  one  said :  "  America  ne 
dobre." 

The  boys  had  penetrated  into  the  mysteries  of 
baseball  vernacular,  and  one  of  them  was  the 
short-stop  on  his  team. 

When  I  inquired  of  him  just  what  a  short-stop 
is,  he  looked  at  me  pityingly  and  said  :  "  Say, 
are  you  a  greenhorn  ?  " 

I  am  sure  if  I  had  told  him  that  I  was  a  col- 
lege professor,  he  would  have  asked  for  my  cre- 
dentials. 

Some  of  the  girls,  besides  having  gone  to  our 
public  schools,  belonged  to  clubs,  wore  pins  and 
buttons  and  chewed  gum  most  viciously.  All 
were  loath  to  go  to  the  "  Stary  Kray." 

I  surely  was  in  my  element,  the  human  ele- 
ment ;  with  babies  to  cuddle,  to  guess  their  ages 
and  their  weight ;  to  watch  the  boisterous,  half 
Americanized,  mysterious  youth  and  to  ask 
questions  and  answer  them  among  these  strong, 
friendly  men. 

There  was  one  woman  who  neither  smiled  at 
me  nor  answered  my  greeting ;  who  held  her 
half-clothed,  puny  baby  close  to  her  breast,  giv- 
ing him  his  evening  meal.  Other  little  ones, 
seemingly  all  of  one  age,  huddled  close  to  the 
mother,  who  looked  like  a  great,  frightened  bird 
hovering  over  her  young. 


26  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

"  Her  man  been  killed  in  the  mine,"  thq 
women  said,  and  I  found  no  more  questions  to 
ask  her.  I  could  only  sympathize  with  her  in 
her  grief ;  for  I  knew  it.  I  knew  it  because  I  had 
seen  her  or  her  kind,  by  the  hundreds  at  a  time, 
prone  on  the  ground  beside  the  yawning  pit, 
claiming  some  unrecognizable  form  as  that  of 
husband  or  son ;  often  of  husband  and  son.  I 
have  heard  the  bitter  wails  and  lamentations  of 
a  whole  hillside.  Out  of  each  hut  they  came, 
the  heart-broken  cries  of  the  living  over  the  dead  ; 
and  in  that  grief,  the  Slovak,  the  Polish  or  the 
Italian  women  were  just  like  the  American 
woman,  who  more  silently,  perhaps,  grieved  over 
her  husband,  the  foreman  of  the  mine.  In  the 
radiant  morning  he  walked  away  from  her  and 
home  ;  into  the  mine,  his  tomb. 

The  poor  Slav  woman  had  paid  the  price  for 
her  American  hopes  and  had  a  right  to  say : 
"  America  ne  dobre  "  ;  but  she  did  not  say  it. 

"  Lift  my  boy ! "  a  rather  muscular,  good- 
looking  man  said,  in  the  English  of  New  York's 
East  Side.  He  seemed  a  little  jealous  of  the  at- 
tention I  had  paid  to  these  strange  children. 

"  He's  the  real  stuff,"  he  continued.  "  A  gen- 
uine Yankee  boy.  Born  on  the  East  Side." 

"My  I     But  he's  heavy  1" 

"  You  bet  he  is ! "  the  proud  father  ex- 
claimed, after  my  only  half  successful  effort  to 
lift  th*  youngster. 


"  THEY  THAT  GO  OUT  IN  SHIPS  "     27 

"  He's  going  to  be  a  prize-fighter,  like  his 
daddy  ;  "  and  before  I  realized  it  I  was  initiated 
into  the  technicalities  of  the  prize-ring.  My  new 
friend  proved  to  be  an  aspirant  for  strange 
honours,  especially  strange  when  sought  by  a 
Jew.  His  ambition  was  to  be  a  champion. 

"  I  was  the  foist  one,"  he  said,  "  to  start  the 
fighting  business  among  the  Jews.  There's  lots 
of  'em  now." 

Why  was  he  going  over?  His  wife,  a 
native  of  Hungary,  had  grown  homesick  for  the 
Magyarland.  She  was  dying  of  that  most 
dreadful  of  all  diseases,  consumption  ;  so  her  Ike 
and  little  Joe  were  going  with  her  to  Budapest. 

"  Say,"  Ike  confided,  "  I  don't  know  what 
that  Old  Country  is  like;  but  I'll  be  hiking 
back  to  the  good  old  Bowery  in  six  weeks 
unless  I'm  mighty  much  mistaken." 

Little  Joe,  with  all  his  weight,  had  nestled  in 
my  arms  and  grown  quite  affectionate.  When 
we  parted,  he  called  me  "Uncle,"  and  I  was 
properly  proud  of  being  the  uncle  of  a  future 
champion  prize-fighter  of  the  world. 

By  the  time  the  first  bugle  sounded  for  dinner 
I  had  tasted  enough  of  the  joys  of  this  new 
fellowship  ;  so  I  said  good-night  in  four  lan- 
guages. Up  to  the  deck  and  to  my  cabin  door, 
I  could  hear  little  Joe  calling  after  me  in  a  voice 
like  that  of  a  lusty  young  rooster,  "  Good-night, 
uncle  1 " 


28  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

Dinner  in  the  first  cabin  was  fashionably 
quiet ;  for  it  was  our  first  evening  meal  together, 
and  we  were  measuring  and  scanning  one 
another  after  the  manner  of  fashionable  folk, 
trying  to  decide  with  whom  it  was  safe  to  speak. 

We  reached  the  point  of  discussing  the  dinner 
and  the  merits  of  Italian  cooking ;  we  spoke  of 
the  weather  and  hoped  it  would  remain  so  calm 
and  beautiful  all  the  way.  Some  of  us  even 
went  so  far  as  to  ask  our  neighbour  if  this  was 
the  first  trip  over,  which  is  a  rather  silly  ques- 
tion to  ask  nowadays  when  every  one  has 
crossed  the  ocean  a  dozen  times,  except  a  few 
very  extraordinary  people. 

After  dinner,  as  we  lounged  on  deck,  a  lady, 
whose  face  I  could  not  see,  sat  down  beside  me 
and  said :  "You  don't  approve  ladies'  smoking, 
do  you  ?  "  With  that,  she  drew  from  her  silver 
case  a  cigarette,  and  put  it  to  her  lips. 

"  I  don't  myself,"  she  continued ;  "  but  I 
smoke  because  my  whole  nature  is  reacting 
against  the  Connecticut  Puritanism  in  which  I 
have  been  steeped.  I  don't  enjoy  smoking,  at 
least  my  nerves  don't ;  but  my  whole  self  takes 
pleasure  in  it  because  I  have  been  told  over  and 
over  again  that  I  mustn't ;  so  now  I  do. 

"  I  do  everything,  even  drink  cocktails,  as  you 
have  seen.  I  do  love  to  shock  people." 

I  told  her  that  I  had  grown  accustomed  to 
shocks,  that  I  had  seen  something  of  the  world, 


"  THEY  THAT  GO  OUT  IN  SHIPS  "     29 

was  fairly  well  acquainted  with  the  weakness  of 
the  flesh  and  the  power  of  the  devil ;  but  that  I 
really  thought  it  strange  that  an  American 
woman  and  a  mother  should  smoke  and  drink. 
Her  daughter,  a  girl  of  about  sixteen,  properly 
gowned  and  coldly  indifferent,  watched  her 
mother  and  listened  to  our  conversation  until 
her  maid  came  and  bore  her  away,  after  she  had 
bade  her  mother  an  unaffectionate  good-night. 

I  suppose  it  was  the  cigarettes  that  made 
my  neighbour  communicative,  perhaps  it  was 
simply  because  she  wanted  to  talk,  that  she  told 
me  her  story — a  story  more  lamentable  than  I 
have  ever  heard  in  the  steerage. 

She  was  graduated  from  a  college  which 
prides  itself  more  than  most  colleges,  on  being 
an  intellectual  centre.  Immediately  after  enter- 
ing society  she  married  a  man  of  her  own  set, 
wealthy,  cultured  and  a  university  graduate. 
Now,  after  seventeen  years  of  married  life,  she 
had  obtained  a  divorce,  because,  as  she  said, 
they  had  "  had  enough  of  each  other."  He  had 
already  married,  and  she  was  going  to  Europe  to 
find  a  husband,  a  man  with  braid  and  gilt  buttons ; 
preferably  some  one  connected  with  an  embassy. 

Several  of  her  friends,  she  said,  had  married 
into  that  class  and  were  "  perfectly  happy." 

"  Foreigners  are  so  polite,"  she  said.  "  Ameri- 
cans, especially  American  husbands,  are  boors. 
Think  of  nothing  but  business,  know  nothing  of 


30  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

music  or  art,  and  are  absorbed  in  football,  the 
Board  of  Trade  and  fast  horses." 

I  knew  that  this  woman  was  not  a  typical 
American  woman,  nor  typical  of  a  large  class ; 
but  she  was  interesting  as  a  type  of  many  of 
her  class  who  have  grown  weary  of  Democracy 
and  the  attendant  Puritanisms  of  America,  have 
crossed  the  seas  and  recrossed  them,  have  gam- 
bled at  Monte  Carlo  and  flirted  at  Budapest  and 
Vienna,  have  seen  the  shady  side  of  Paris  by 
early  morning  light  and  have  become  alienated 
from  the  best  there  is  in  America. 

This  particular  woman  had  broken  up  her 
home,  had  left  a  fourteen-year-old  son  with 
his  grandparents,  and  was  about  to  throw  her- 
self away  on  pretty  nearly  anything  that  pre- 
sented itself,  if  it  sported  brass  buttons  and 
trimmings,  and  had  at  least  a  Von  to  its  name. 
She  belongs  to  a  species  which  I  have  often  seen 
in  the  American  quarters  of  European  cities ; 
but  one  so  frank  as  she,  I  had  never  met 

I  thought  I  had  known  something  of  American 
homes  and  American  husbands  ;  but  evidently 
I  have  lived  in  the  social  backwoods,  for  what 
she  told  me  was  indeed  a  revelation. 

In  the  course  of  the  conversation  we  were 
joined  by  other  husbandless  women  who  were 
to  live  abroad,  although  not  divorced  nor  yet 
seeking  gold  braid  and  brass  buttons ;  by  the 
gentleman  from  Boston  who  had  confessed  to 


«  THEY  THAT  GO  OUT  IN  SHIPS  "    31 

being  a  church-member,  and  by  a  merchant  from 
the  West  who  was  eager  to  make  up  a  pool 
on  the  ship's  run, — and  before  we  knew  it,  we 
were  back  to  my  proposition  about  the  steerage. 

It  was  the  merchant  from  the  West  who  said 
that  he  noticed  how  much  American  clothing 
these  immigrants  carried  back.  That  the  men 
had  celluloid  collars,  watches  and  brass-bound 
trunks.  It  was  the  man  from  Boston  who  said 
that  they  carried  themselves  so  differently  from 
those  who  came  over,  and  it  was  he  who  began 
to  calculate  how  much  money  they  carried  back, 
impoverishing  our  country  and  enriching  theirs. 

"  One  thing,"  I  ventured  in  reply,  "  you  have 
not  counted  and  cannot  count.  How  much  of 
that  which  is  better  than  money  they  are  carry- 
ing back.  Ideals  filtered  into  their  minds,  new 
aspirations  dominating  their  lives,  and  all  found 
in  the  humblest  places  in  America. 

"  The  steerage,  as  I  have  said  before,  and  now 
say  again  with  still  more  emphasis,  carries  into 
Europe  more  saving  ideas  than  the  cabin. 
What  we  bring  we  have  borrowed  from  Europe 
and  bring  back  in  exaggerated  forms.  Neither 
Paris  nor  Berlin,  nor  Vienna  nor  Monte  Carlo  is 
being  blessed  by  our  coming  or  cares  for  us  at 
all,  but  only  for  our  dollars." 

No  one  contradicted  me  and  I  do  not  think  I 
shall  be  contradicted. 

"  Neither  Europe  nor  America  is  the  bettei 


32  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

for  our  coming  or  our  going,"  I  continued. 
"  And  you,"  turning  to  the  man  from  Boston, 
"  you  who  say  that  the  immigrants  are  to  blame 
for  our  social  and  religious  deterioration,  ask 
yourself  what  you  and  your  class  bring  back  to 
America  after  a  season  spent  on  the  frayed  edges 
of  the  so-called  social  life  of  Europe,  with  which 
the  average  American  comes  in  contact.  As  for 
the  money  the  immigrants  carry  back,  they  have 
earned  every  cent  of  it,  and  I  have  no  doubt  that 
we  in  the  cabin  carry  more  money  over  to  Europe 
than  they  do,  and  we  will  spend  it  there ;  and 
I  am  not  so  sure  that  we  have  earned  it 

"  Moreover,"  waving  aside  the  man  from 
Boston  who  was  about  to  interrupt  me,  but  I 
was  wound  up  and  could  not  run  down,  "  they 
have  paid  a  terrible  price  for  the  money  they 
carry  home.  Shall  I  tell  you  what  that  price 
is  ?  "  And  I  told  the  story  of  the  Slavic  widow 
and  her  orphaned  brood.  Then  my  good  neigh- 
bour, the  Puritan  rebel,  who  had  heartlessly 
talked  of  her  deserted  home,  stretched  out  her 
hand  and  touching  mine  said  :  "  Please  don't 
tell  us  any  more.  You  have  already  made  me 
think,  and  I  don't  want  to." 

Then  came  four  bells  from  the  bridge,  and 
the  lonely  sailor  watching  from  the  crow's  nest 
called  out :  "  All's  well  on  board  !  " 

With  a  sigh  my  Puritan  rebel  rose,  murmuring 
what  I  alone  heard  : 


"THEY  THAT  GO  OUT  IN  SHIPS"     33 

"  Sailor,  that  isn't  so  1 "  Then  she  said : 
"  Good-night" 

After  that  there  were  more  cigarettes  and 
cocktails  in  the  smoking-room  ;  but  one  woman 
wasn't  there. 


II 

THE  PRICE  THEY  PAY 

THE  ship's  doctor  was  very  much  like 
other  men  of  his  profession  who  choose 
to  be  knocked  about  from  port  to  port, 
dealing  out  pills  and  powder,  when  pills  and 
powders  seem  of  so  little  consequence.  He  was 
young,  inexperienced  and  had  not  yet  learned 
half  the  secret  of  his  calling;  namely,  to  keep 
his  mouth  shut  at  the  proper  time.  At  breakfast 
he  told  us  that  he  had  eight  cases  of  consump- 
tion in  the  steerage,  and  that  three  men  were 
about  the  worst  he  had  ever  seen. 

He  told  this  with  the  cool  air  of  the  medical 
man  who  delights  in  "  cases  "  as  such.  Then  he 
told  us  about  one  of  them,  a  Greek,  who  was  at 
the  point  of  death,  but  all  the  time  kept  calling 
for  cheese. 

"  Don't  you  give  him  cheese,  all  the  cheese  he 
wants?"  cried  one  of  the  young  ladies  across 
the  table. 

"  No,"  replied  the  doctor ;  "  what's  the  use  ?  " 

Then  I  looked  at  the  young  lady  and  she 
looked  at  me;  I  whispered  something  to  my 
steward,  and  she  gave  an  order ;  and  we  both 
had  cheese — real  Greek  cheese  for  breakfast 

34 


THE  PRICE  THEY  PAY  35 

In  the  morning  the  steerage  looks  its  best. 
The  deck  has  been  scrubbed  and  so  have  some 
of  the  passengers.  If  the  day  promises  to  be 
fair,  the  travellers  unconsciously  draw  upon  the 
coming  joy  in  large  draughts.  When  I  went 
down  that  day,  I  was  no  more  among  strangers. 
Tony  greeted  me  with  an  unusually  broad  smile, 
John  Sullivan  shook  hands  with  me  so  vigorously 
that  I  thought  he  must  be  the  veritable  John  L. 
and  the  children  gathered  round  me,  confidently 
awaiting  their  sweets.  This  was  truly  inspiring  ; 
but  it  became  touching  when  the  Slavic  widow 
said  to  her  brood  :  "  The  Krist-kindel  comes." 

In  the  depths  of  the  steerage  they  had  heard 
that  a  man  from  the  cabin  had  come  down  and 
been  good  to  them ;  that  he  had  petted  the 
children,  luring  them  with  sweets.  And  the 
steerage  gave  up  its  treasure  of  little  ones, 
seemingly  endless  in  number  ;  so  that  the  stock 
of  good  things  had  to  be  replenished  many  a 
time  before  each  child  had  its  fair  and  equal 
share. 

Truly  it  is  "  More  blessed  to  give  than  to  re- 
ceive," yet  the  blessing  brings  its  burdens,  in  the 
disclosure  of  real  or  pretended  suffering ;  and  the 
immigrants  are  no  exception  to  the  rule.  I  know 
now  as  I  have  never  known  before,  the  price  they 
pay  for  the  dollars  so  safely  tucked  away,  which 
are  their  wealth,  their  power  and,  I  trust,  their 
happiness. 


\ 
36  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

Here  is  a  beggarly-looking  group  of  Bul- 
garians. They  left  their  home  in  the  richest  dis- 
trict of  that  new  Balkan  czardom  about  a  year 
ago.  I  know  their  village,  set  in  the  midst  of 
acres  of  roses,  of  poppies  and  of  maize.  Like 
their  forefathers  they  lived  there  contentedly  un- 
til restlessness,  like  a  disease,  crept  upon  them. 
Coming  from  the  plains  in  the  West,  it  spread 
its  contagion  over  the  Alps,  the  Carpathians  and 
the  Macedonian  hills.  The  men  mortgaged  their 
homes,  left  their  wives  and  children  to  gather 
the  roses,  the  poppies  and  the  maize,  and  took 
passage  at  Triest  to  gather  dollars  in  America. 

On  landing,  they  were  shipped  West  and 
farther  West.  They  travelled  by  polluted  rivers, 
and  over  mountains'stripped  of  their  verdure  and 
robbed  of  the  wealth  of  their  veins.  They  saw 
the  refuse  of  the  mines  left  like  broken  trappings 
of  war  on  the  battle-field.  They  saw  the  glare  of 
a  thousand  flaming  ovens  where  coal  was  being 
baked  into  coke,  and  in  their  shadows  they  saw 
besmirched  and  bedraggled  towns,  now  cluster- 
ing, now  trailing  along,  now  losing  themselves 
in  the  darkness,  and  now  glowing  again  in  the 
lurid  light  of  giant  flames  pouring  from  huge 
furnaces.  They  saw  day  turned  into  night  by 
smoke,  and  night  turned  into  day  by  unquenched 
fires,  and  they  knew  not  whether  it  was  day  or 
night,  or  heaven  or  hell  to  which  they  had  come. 
At  the  end  of  the  journey  they  were  led  into  a 


THE  PRICE  THEY  PAY  37 

deep  ravine  through  which  an  inky  river  strug- 
gled, and  over  which  hung  a  cloud  as  immovable 
as  if  the  released  elements  were  forming  again 
into  solids. 

Twelve  men  were  counted  by  some  one  who 
led  them,  or  drove  them,  or  pushed  them  into  a 
hut  which  had  once  been  painted  some  dingy 
colour,  but  now  was  part  of  the  gloom  around 
it.  Other  twelve  men  were  made  to  enter  an- 
other hut,  and  so  on,  until  all  were  disposed  of. 
By  signs  they  were  given  to  understand  that  thia 
was  home ;  so  they  spread  out  their  woolen  coats 
and  went  to  sleep.  When  morning  came,  after 
a  breakfast  of  cheap  whiskey  and  poor  bread, 
they  were  marched  into  the  mill  of  a  certain  cor- 
poration. It  would  do  no  good  to  mention  the 
name  of  this  corporation,  and  it  would  do  no 
harm.  No  one  would  be  offended ;  for  there  is 
no  one  to  offend. 

I  have  very  dear  friends  who  own  stock  in  that 
company,  but  they  just  draw  dividends — they  do 
not  control  the  mill.  The  man  and  the  men  who 
run  it  produce  the  dividends ;  they  do  not  own 
the  stock,  certainly  not  all  of  it.  I  cannot  single 
out  that  corporation  ;  it  is  not  the  only  sinner  nor 
the  chief  one,  and  that  would  be  its  only  consola- 
tion, were  it  looking  for  anything  so  unpractical. 

My  Bulgarians  saw  boiling  pots  of  metal  and 
red-hot  ingots  of  metal  and  men  of  metal,  who 
shouted  at  them  in  an  unknown  tongue,  and  the 


38  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

louder  they  shouted  the  less  the  men  under- 
stood. /Little  by  little,  however,  they  grew  accus- 
tomed to  the  tumult,  and  learned  to  walk  skillfully 
on  the  inch  plank  which  alone  separated  them 
from  death  and  destruction.  They  found  con- 
solation in  the  bulging  envelope  full  of  money 
which  came  to  them  at  the  end  of  the  week  ;  for 
it  was  much  money,  exchanged  into  their  cur- 
rency, more  money  than  three  months'  labour 
brought  them  among  the  roses,  the  poppies  and 
the  maize. 

Two-thirds  of  it  they  sent  home,  and  lived  on 
the  other  third,  eating  coarse  meat  and  bread, 
and  indulging  in  strong  drink.  Month  after 
month  they  toiled  in  the  mill,  and  lived  in  the 
same  ravine,  with  the  thundering,  spewing, 
belching  monsters.  They  lost  the  freshness  of 
skin  and  the  elasticity  of  movement  characteristic 
of  their  race ;  but  were  happy  in  the  fat,  bulging 
envelope  at  the  end  of  the  week. 

Of  the  city,  with  its  churches  and  its  beautiful 
homes  they  had  seen  nothing ;  for  the  mill  ran 
day  and  night,  and  night  and  day,  and  Sabbath 
days  and  Sabbath  nights  as  well.  They  cared 
not  for  cities  or  churches  or  even  for  fine  houses, 
so  long  as  they  got  the  envelopes. 

One  morning,  however,  they  came  to  the  mill 
and  it  was  silent  within,  as  it  was  silent  without, 
and  the  door  was  closed.  One  week  and 
another  they  waited  ;  but  there  was  no  envelope 


THE  PRICE  THEY  PAY  39 

with  money.  Their  own  small  change  was  gone 
and  they  were  starving.  Then  came  the  same 
man  who  had  driven  them  twelve  by  twelve  into 
the  huts,  and  twelve  by  twelve  he  drove  them  out ; 
for  they  had  no  money  with  which  to  pay  the  rent, 
and  men  with  hearts  of  metal  cannot  feel  what 
it  means  to  be  driven  out  of  a  hut,  even  such  a 
wretched  hut,  and  be  in  the  roofless  street. 

Half-starved,  the  men  left  their  miserable 
shelter  and  marched  into  the  main  street,  past 
the  stores  and  the  churches  ;  and  then  they  saw 
that  the  city  had  homes  and  that  not  all  the  men 
had  hearts  of  metal. 

Bread  came  in  abundance,  and  soup  and 
meat.  Fine  women  were  proud  to  serve  them, 
and  the  basement  of  the  church  became  their 
lodging  place.  On  Sunday  they  heard  above 
them  the  voices  of  little  children,  and  then  deep 
organ  tones  and  a  man's  voice  speaking  loud 
enough  for  them  to  hear,  although  they  could 
not  understand.  Then  came  a  great  volume  of 
song,  and  if  the  congregation  sang:  "The 
Church's  one  foundation  is  Jesus  Christ,  her 
Lord,"  poetry  never  was  more  true  to  fact ;  for 
the  church  seemed  buttressed  upon  these  Slavic 
brothers  of  Jesus,  in  whom,  as  in  all  the  needy, 
He  incarnates  Himself. 

By  slow  stages  the  men  found  their  way  back 
to  the  sea,  and  through  the  charity  of  their  own 
more  fortunate  countrymen,  they  were  now 


40  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

homeward  bound.  A  more  forlorn  looking  set 
of  men  I  have  never  seen ;  emaciated,  ragged, 
unclean  and  discouraged.  They  had  paid  the 
price. 

A  man  groped  his  way  towards  me,  his  face 
disfigured  and  his  eyelids  closed  forever.  He 
had  money,  nearly  a  thousand  dollars,  he  told 
me.  "  But  what  would  I  not  give  for  only  one 
eye  ?  "  he  said  pathetically.  He  paid  the  price 
when  a  powder  blast  blotted  daylight  out  forever. 

A  rather  forward  Jewish  girl  snatched  from 
my  hands  goodies  intended  for  the  children,  and 
at  a  glance  I  knew  the  price  she  had  paid,  if  she 
carried  any  dollars  across  the  sea.  She  be- 
longed to  an  ever-increasing  number  of  Jewish 
women,  who  have  forsaken  the  path  of  virtue  or 
have  been  pushed  from  it,  who  knows  into  how 
deep  a  hell  ? 

A  man  came  to  me,  the  mere  shadow  of  a 
man  and  asked  for  some  soothing  sweet  for  his 
cough.  He  was  a  Montenegrin  and  had  been  a 
stalwart  soldier  in  the  army  of  his  prince,  in 
whose  domain  the  white  plague  is  practically 
unknown.  He,  too,  carried  money  home ;  more 
money  than  any  man  in  his  village  in  the  Black 
Mountains  had  ever  possessed.  It  was  earned 
in  the  iron  works  of  an  Ohio  town,  in  a  pit  so 
full  of  flying  metal,  ground  from  rough  surfaces, 
that  every  breath  carried  destruction  to  his 
lungs. 


THE  PRICE  THEY  PAY  41 

The  sight  of  this  man  recalled  the  conversa- 
tion at  the  breakfast  table,  and  I  looked  for  the 
hospital.  Two  stories  below  the  steerage  deck  I 
found  the  contagious  ward,  and  upon  iron  cots 
lay  the  three  dying  men,  mere  shadows  of  men 
except  the  eyes.  They  were  still  the  eyes  of 
flesh,  grown  larger  seemingly,  through  suffer- 
ing, which  was  all  too  real. 

Nearest  the  door,  and  nearest  death  appar- 
ently, was  the  Greek.  He  looked  almost 
happy ;  for  he  had  cheese,  the  cheese  of  Greece, 
which  my  opposite  neighbour  at  table  was  feed- 
ing him  bit  by  bit.  He  ate  and  ate,  and  called 
for  more.  Poor  fellow  I  His  soul  had  already 
forgotten  the  glory  of  Athens ;  but  his  craving 
stomach  had  a  long  memory ;  it  remembered  the 
cheese  of  Greece. 

Stolidly  looking  at  the  iron  ceiling  from  which 
hung  the  huge  sweat  drops  of  the  labouring 
ship,  lay  a  dying  Slav.  The  racial  marks  of  his 
face  were  almost  obliterated,  and  one  could  with 
difficulty  recognize  the  Slav,  except  by  his 
silence  in  suffering.  My  hands  touched  his ; 
and  although  they  were  mere  skin  and  bone, 
the  marks  of  heavy  labour  were  still  upon  them. 
His  memory  had  not  quite  faded ;  for  between 
panting  breaths  he  told  me  of  the  village 
in  Hungary  from  which  he  had  gone,  a  lusty 
youth ;  of  the  old  Matka  he  had  left  behind,  of 
the  sea  voyage  and  then  of  his  work  in  the 


42  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

x 

mines.  It  was  "  Prach,  prach  "  (dust,  dust),  he 
said.  He  was  sure  that  when  the  air  of  the  Tatra 
mountains  filled  his  lungs  again,  he  would  get 
well.  Did  he  want  anything  ?  "  Yes,  palenka." 
His  native  white,  biting  drink  Oh,  if  he  just 
had  palenka  1  "  Wouldn't  whiskey  do  as  well  ?" 
"  Yes,  anything  that  gives  strength  ;  but  palenka 
would  be  the  best." 

There  was  a  third  man,  an  Italian  of  the 
Calabrian  group  to  which  Tony  and  John  Sulli- 
van belonged.  There  was,  or  there  had  been,  a 
third  man  ;  for  even  as  we  turned  towards  him,  a 
rattle  in  his  hollow  chest  gave  sign  that  he  had 
crossed  to  another  harbour  than  that  for  which 
he  had  embarked.  We  would  have  lingered; 
but  death  brought  the  nurse  and  the  doctor, 
with  much  muttering  and  many  complaints 
against  us,  and  threats  of  quarantine. 

After  all,  it  was  good  to  reach  the  noisy  deck, 
even  the  deck  of  the  steerage — and  life. 

"  Tombola  !  Tombola ! "  the  Calabrian  peas- 
ants shouted,  shaking  a  pasteboard  box  of  dice. 
"  Tre,  sette,  dieci, — terno  ! "  the  lucky  winner 
screamed,  gathering  up  the  greasy  soldi  piled  on 
the  greasy  deck. 

In  another  corner  the  dealer  was  shaking  a 
wicker  basket  full  of  the  lucky  and  unlucky 
numbers,  drawing  them  forth  one  by  one  and 
calling  them  out  to  the  winners  and  the  losers. 
All  over  the  deck  there  were  such  groups  of 


THE  PRICE  THEY  PAY  43 

noisy  Italians,  ignorant  of  the  death  of  a  comrade 
who  had  drawn  the  unlucky  number — or  the 
lucky  one  ;  who  can  tell  ? 

Unconscious  of  the  fact  that  death  had  come 
in  the  wake  of  the  ship  and  overtaken  us,  all 
went  merrily  on — and  no  one  in  cabin  or  steer- 
age must  be  told  ;  for  the  dark  angel  is  nowhere 
so  unwelcome  as  upon  the  uncertain  deep, 
where  there  are  never  more  than  a  few  planks 
of  wood  or  girders  of  steel  between  time  and 
eternity.  No  one  thought  of  death  that  morn- 
ing. Who  could  think  of  it  with  the  sky  so 
blue  and  the  sea  so  calm  ?  Even  nature  seemed 
oblivious  of  the  fact  that  one  of  her  children  had 
paid  the  price. 

Nor  was  the  man  from  Boston,  nor  many  men 
in  Boston,  with  all  their  inherited  sensitiveness 
of  conscience?  nor  the  men  in  Pennsylvania 
where  conscience  is  blackened  by  coal,  and 
hardened  by  steel — none  of  these  men,  I  say, 
was  conscious  or  is  conscious  how  great  is  the 
price  these  European  peasants  pay  for  the  dollars 
they  carry  home. 

In  all  the  industrial  states,  there  are  hundreds 
and  thousands  of  graves,  marked  by  humble 
wooden  crosses,  beneath  which  sleep  just  such 
toilers,  snatched  from  life  by  "The  broken 
wheel,  the  loosened  cord."  They  have  paid  the 
price,  the  greatest  price,  giving  their  lives  for  the 
dollars,  the  hoarding  of  which  we  begrudged  them. 


44  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

No  less  than  10,000  of  these  despised  aliens 
laid  down  their  lives  in  one  year,  digging  coal, 
making  steel,  blasting  stone  and  doing  the 
numberless  dangerous  drudgeries  of  our  in- 
dustrial life. 

All  that  the  Boston  man  saw  was  the  money, 
the  good  clothes,  the  celluloid  collars  of  the 
men,  and  the  gaudy  shams  that  decked  the 
women.  /  could  see  the  mouths  of  half  a  dozen 
mines,  out  of  which  were  dragged  in  one  year 
the  mangled,  powder-burnt,  asphyxiated  bodies 
of  a  thousand  once-breathing  souls.  I  heard 
the  cries  and  groans  of  hundreds  of  women  and 
thousands  of  children ;  for  I  have  seen  mothers 
embrace  bodiless  limbs  and  limbless  bodies, 
fragments  of  the  sons  they  had  borne,  and 
although  30,000,000  dollars  and  more  were 
carried  home  by  the  living,  they  tod  had  paid 
a  price  beyond  the  hard  labour  they  did.  In 
the  suffering  they  endured  in  damp  mines,  by  the 
hot  metal  blasts,  in  cold  ditches  and  in  dark  and 
dangerous  tunnels,  they  paid  the  price,  indeed. 

I  wish  that  the  man  from  Boston  and  all  the 
men  with  small  vision  had  been  on  the  deck  of 
that  Italian  steamer,  when  three  times  during 
her  long  voyage  the  engines  stopped  their 
breathing,  just  before  sunrise.  In  the  steerage 
and  in  the  cabin  alike,  men  and  women  were 
asleep.  The  captain,  the  doctor  and  a  few  of  us, 
who  knew  and  dared,  were  the  only  ones  astir. 


THE  PRICE  THEY  PAY  45 

/ 

From  the  depths  of  the  ship  the  sailors  carried 
the  sail-cloth  sheathed  bundles  and  held  them 
over  the  waters.  Then  sharp  and  dear  the 
captain  called :  "  Let  go  1 "  The  engines 
breathed  again,  the  mighty  screws  churned  the 
quiet  sea  to  foam  and  the  surging  waves  en- 
folded the  bodies  of  the  men  who  had  paid  the 
price. 


Ill 

A  MURDERER,  MARY  AND  AN  HONORARY 
DEGREE 

ONCE  a  day  the  steerage  was  roused  from 
its  monotony,     Men,  women  and  chil- 
dren, a  thousand  of  them,  pushed  and 
crowded  (good-naturedly,  of  course)  in  the  at- 
tempt to  get  a  glimpse  of  a  fellow  passenger. 
There   was    nothing   which    distinguished   him 
from  the  rest  of  the  immigrants  except  that  he 
had   taken   human  life,   and  was  being  carried 
back  to  pay  the  penalty  of  his  crime. 

The  hour  which  he  daily  spent  on  deck  was 
an  hour  of  singular  triumph.  Almost  reverently 
the  crowd  stared  at  him,  as  if  he  had  just 
dropped  from  heaven  or  risen  from  his  grave. 
I  am  sure  that  no  one  felt  any  ill  will  towards 
him,  and  even  the  sailor  who,  revolver  in  hand, 
stood  guard  over  him,  shared  the  distinction 
which  the  steerage  felt  in  having  a  murderer 
there.  The  fact  is,  he  did  not  look  like  a 
murderer  or  even  like  the  typical  bad  man ; 
neither  did  he  seem  smitten  by  remorse,  nor  did 
he  exhibit  any  kind  of  bravado  which  might  have 
aroused  resentment. 

Graciously  he  accepted  the  cigar  which  some 
46 


A  MURDERER  47 

one  gave  him,  and  as  graciously  permitted  me  to 
light  it  for  him  (his  hands  were  in  irons)  while 
with  remarkable  frankness  he  told  me  his  history 
and  the  story  of  his  crime. 

Of  course  he  was  an  Italian,  bora  in  a  southern 
town  in  which  some  20,000  people  had  accepted 
poverty  as  their  inheritance,  and  made  little  or 
no  struggle  against  it  They  had  also  accepted 
the  burden  of  taxation  and  exploitation  by  gov- 
ernment officials ;  although  here  and  there  some 
one  with  the  gleam  of  freedom  in  his  breast  felt 
the  grievousness  of  it,  and  secretly  or  openly 
protested. 

Patriot  brigands  enough  there  were,  and  the 
stories  of  their  exploits  fired  the  imagination  of 
a  number  of  boys,  of  whom  Luigi  (the  murderer) 
was  one.  On  Sunday  evenings  under  a  clump 
of  cedars  these  boys  gathered,  until  in  imitation 
of  their  elders  they  organized  a  society,  whose 
patriotic  purposes  involved  nothing  less  than  the 
overthrow  of  monarchy,  and  wiping  Church, 
priests  and  Pope  from  the  face  of  the  earth.  A 
rather  ambitious  program  for  minors ;  but  they 
had  imbibed  the  "  Zeit-geist "  in  an  exaggerated 
form,  had  begun  to  feel  the  great  social  wrongs 
of  the  times,  and  like  most  youths,  admired  the 
heroic. 

Luigi  told  me  frankly  that  he  committed  thefts 
first  from  the  till  of  his  father,  a  shopkeeper, 
who,  upon  the  discovery  of  his  son's  pilfering, 


48  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

beat  him  half  to  death  and  drove  him  out  of  the 
house.  After  that  the  boy  stole  from  any  one  and 
any  place ;  because  the  "  Society  for  the  Libera- 
tion of  the  People  of  Italy"  needed  money,  first, 
last  and  all  the  time,  to  carry  on  its  ambitious 
schemes.  Ultimately  he  was  caught  and  sen- 
tenced to  three  years'  imprisonment 

I  know  something  of  the  horrors  of  Southern 
Italian  prisons,  and  I  could  well  believe  that  three 
such  years  would  ripen  rebellious  thoughts  into 
desperate  ones.  Luigi  left  the  prison  with  ven- 
geance in  his  heart,  slew  the  judge  who  had  sen- 
tenced him,  and  fled  to  America. 

I  have  purposely  robbed  his  story  of  all  its 
patriotic  and  picturesque  elements,  for  I  do  not 
wish  to  glorify  Luigi.  He  is  just  a  type,  per- 
haps not  a  very  fair  type,  of  many  of  his  country- 
men whose  coming  to  America  disturbs  us  and 
whose  leaving  it  causes  no  regrets. 

Luigi's  further  history  was  interesting  to  me 
because  he  knew  some  things  about  America 
which  I  did  not  know.  He  had  lived  a  number 
of  years  in  the  state  of  New  Jersey,  which  seems 
to  be  a  sort  of  haven  of  refuge  for  Trusts  and  An- 
archists. During  those  years  he  had  been  in  in- 
timate relation  with  our  courts,  jails,  prisons  and 
police.  He  had  plotted  for  them,  with  them  and 
against  them,  and  now  was  being  sent  back  in 
irons  because  (he  said)  his  remaining  in  the 
United  States  would  embarrass  certain  officials. 


A  MURDERER  49 

Luigi  saw  no  great  difference  between  prisons 
here  and  in  Italy ;  between  jailers  there  and 
jailers  here ;  between  judges  on  this  side  the 
water  and  on  the  other  side.  The  only  differ- 
ence that  Luigi  did  see  was  that  over  here  they 
are  much  smarter  than  in  Italy. 

There  was  but  one  good  thing  which  Luigi 
experienced  in  America.  They  had  been  good 
to  his  "  kid."  Over  and  over  again  he  told  me 
that,  and  over  and  over  again  he  blessed  the 
good  women  of  a  certain  New  Jersey  town  for 
being  good  to  his  "  kid."  Often  as  he  cursed 
the  police  (police,  state  and  nation  are  one  in  the 
mind  of  Luigi  and  his  kind)  so  often  did  he  bless 
two  women  at  the  edge  of  that  New  Jersey  town, 
who  had  truly  revealed  the  heart  of  a  nation, 
whose  conscience  had  been  falsely  revealed  to 
him  by  the  police  and  the  petty  courts. 

Looking  over  the  railing,  the  cabin  passengers 
watched  the  murderer  as  eagerly  as  those  in  the 
steerage,  and  when  I  returned  after  my  interview 
with  him,  every  one  clamoured  for  a  report  of 
the  conversation.  Many  of  the  men  sneered  at 
my  suggestion  that  the  murderer  might  be  a 
victim  of  circumstances. 

"  He  ought  to  be  shot  1 "  was  the  brief  but  con- 
clusive argument  of  several. 

"  We're  not  strict  enough  with  them,"  said  the 
man  from  Boston ;  and  added  the  information 
that  shooting  is  too  good  for  these  Black  Hands 


50  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

and  Anarchists.  He  called  me  an  "  unpractical 
sentimentalist."  The  man  from  the  West,  how- 
ever, took  my  part. 

"  You  may  call  the  professor  a  sentimentalist, 
but  I  guess  he  may  be  right  after  all.  We've 
got  a  sentimentalist  as  they  called  him,  in  Den- 
ver. He  took  it  into  his  head  that  you  can  bust 
kids  of  their  meanness  by  being  good  to  them 
instead  of  clapping  them  into  jail,  and  he  has 
done  it.  We  called  him  a  dangerous  sentimen- 
talist; but  the  kids  of  Denver  call  him  their 
friend,  and  he  has  done  more  for  them  than  all 
the  sheriffs  and  judges  and  jailers  put  together." 

While  the  man  from  the  West  was  speaking, 
"  Dirty  Mary,"  as  we  called  her,  looked  wistfully 
up  at  me  and  reminded  me  that  it  was  candy 
time  in  the  steerage. 

Mary  was  positively  the  most  hopeless  little 
creature  my  eyes  have  ever  seen.  She  was 
about  eleven  years  of  age,  and  could  swear  as 
picturesquely  in  English  as  if  she  were  a  Bowery 
tough ;  while  from  her  stockingless  feet  up  to 
her  head,  which  looked  as  if  it  never  had  been 
guilty  of  contact  with  a  hair-brush,  she  was  a 
mass  of  unpicturesque  dirt. 

Mary  had  come  from  Naples  to  Mulberry 
Street,  and  never  had  a  chance  to  be  homesick, 
for  she  never  had  a  home.  Her  father  was  in 
prison  and  her  mother  had  all  she  could  do  to 
take  care  of  the  numerous  little  ones,  who,  at  the 


DIRTY  MARY  DURING  THE  PERIOD  OF  TRANSITION 


A  MURDERER  51 

earliest  moment,  like  the  fledglings  in  a  nest, 
were  pushed  out  to  shift  for  themselves.  Mary 
had  slept  beneath  docks,  in  ash  cans  and  dark 
alleys,  and  although  still  a  child,  there  was  noth- 
ing left  for  her  to  learn  concerning  the  evils  of 
this  world. 

As  I  was  sharing  my  sweets  with  her,  the 
Boston  man  called  down  from  his  safe  vantage 
ground  :  "  Try  your  love-making  on  Mary  1 " 

"  What's  that  bloke  talkin'  about  ?  "  she  asked, 
noisily  chewing  her  candy. 

"  He  has  challenged  me,"  I  answered. 

"Say,"  she  said,  looking  at  the  generous 
proportions  of  the  Boston  man  and  then  at  me, 
"  he's  got  a  cinch,  ain't  he  ?  " 

Nevertheless,  I  accepted  the  challenge. 

"  Mary,"  I  began,  in  my  gentlest  and  most 
persuasive  tones,  "  Mary,  I  want  you  to  wash 
yourself." 

"  Ain't  got  no  soap,"  was  the  reply. 

"Will  you  wash  yourself  if  I  furnish  the 
soap  ?  " 

"  Nop  " — very  decidedly — "  no  soap  in  mine," 

The  preliminary  skirmish  was  over,  and  I  had 
lost ;  but  I  was  not  discouraged.  Probably  the 
attack  had  been  wrong.  I  left  Mary,  and  going 
to  the  barber's  shop,  I  bought  the  most  strongly 
scented  soap  he  had.  Armed  with  this  weapon 
I  returned  to  the  steerage,  and  renewed  the 
attack. 


52  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

"  Mary,"  I  said,  holding  the  soap  close  to  her 
nose,  "  this  will  make  you  smell  sweet  all  over, 
if  you  use  water  with  it" 

Mary  sniffed  the  musk-laden  air,  and  the 
primitive  spirit  in  her,  lured  by  the  odour,  con- 
quered her  will.  She  took  the  cake  of  soap 
and  it  disappeared  in  the  pocket  of  her  greasy 
skirt.  Triumphantly  I  went  to  the  upper  deck 
and  reported  progress.  After  a  remarkably 
short  time  Mary  reappeared  and  smilingly  looked 
at  me  from  below.  She  had  used  the  soap,  all 
of  it,  I  think ;  for  it  was  liberally  plastered  over 
her  face,  her  hands  and  even  her  limbs.  Indeed 
dirt  and  soap  were  pretty  equally  distributed 
over  her  body. 

I  had  never  known  that  Mary  was  shy ;  but 
when  she  heard  the  laughter  of  the  passengers, 
she  disappeared  as  quickly  as  a  frightened  deer, 
leaving  a  strong  smell  of  musk  behind  her. 

"What  was  you  all  laughing  about?"  she 
demanded,  when,  after  a  long  search,  I  found 
her  tucked  in  among  the  blankets  of  the  shelf 
which  was  her  bed.  Then  I  explained  to  her 
the  uses  of  soap,  and  by  the  aid  of  a  pocket 
mirror  showed  her  its  effect  when  used  with  the 
proper  proportion  of  water.  Mary  was  an  apt 
pupil,  and  then  and  there  washed  herself  for  the 
first  time  in  many  days  and  weeks. 

"  Mary,  will  you  wear  stockings  if  I  bring 
them  to  you  ?  " 


A  MURDERER  53 

Emphatically  and  briefly  Mary  answered : 
"  Sure." 

"  And  shoe-strings  in  your  shoes  ?  "  I  was 
growing  bold ;  but  "  According  to  your  faith " 

The  next  day  Mary  appeared,  washed  clean 
and  wearing  stockings  which  my  own  little 
woman  had  provided. 

After  that  the  shoes  were  laced,  and  before  we 
reached  Naples  a  hair-brush  had  invaded  the 
wilderness  which  crowned  her  head.  A  bright 
ribbon  bow  was  the  bribe  which  accomplished 
that  miracle.  Her  teeth  even  became  acquainted 
with  a  tooth-brush,  although  I  had  to  use  chew- 
ing-gum as  an  inducement  to  open  her  tightly 
closed  lips. 

Outwardly,  at  least,  Mary  became  a  changed 
creature.  I  cannot  tell  much  about  what  went 
on  in  her  little  soul ;  but  I  trust  she  felt  some- 
thing of  that  love,  which,  even  in  the  imperfect 
way  in  which  it  was  manifested  to  her,  had  some 
power. 

The  love  I  have  for  the  people  in  the  steerage 
has  begotten  love  in  them,  and  I  have  brothers 
and  sisters  innumerable  ;  while  countless  chil- 
dren call  me  "  Uncle."  I  am  quite  sure  that  if 
these  strangers  are  to  be  blended  into  our 
common  life,  the  one  great  power  which  must 
be  used  will  be  this  something,  which  practical 
people  call  sentimentalism  ;  but  which  after  all, 
at  its  best,  is  a  really  practical  thing,  and  ao 


54  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

complishes  what  rigid  law,  whether  good  or 
bad,  cannot  accomplish.  I  have  seen  this 
force  at  work,  healing,  reclaiming,  redeeming ; 
and  my  faith  in  it  is  unbounded,  although  the 
practical  man  may  ridicule  it  and  the  scientific 
man  may  scoff  at  it.  My  faith  in  love  as  a 
factor,  the  greatest  factor  in  our  social  life,  is 
based  first  of  all  upon  my  belief  in  our  common 
kinship. 

I  recognize  no  barriers  of  race,  class  or  religion 
between  myself  and  any  other  human  being  that 
needs  me.  I  happen  to  know  something  about 
human  beings  ;  I  know  intimately  many  races 
and  more  nationalities,  and  I  have  discovered 
that  when  one  breaks  through  the  strange 
speech,  which  so  often  separates ;  when  one 
closes  one's  eyes  to  what  climate  has  burned 
upon  a  man's  skin,  or  what  social  or  economic 
conditions  have  formed  or  deformed — one  will 
find  in  every  human  being  a  kinsman. 

Those  of  us  who  know  certain  races  most 
intimately  have  come  to  the  conclusion  that 
what  at  first  we  regarded  as  essential  differ- 
ences, are  largely  upon  the  surface  ;  and  that 
when  we  have  penetrated  the  unusual,  we  quickly 
reach  the  essentially  alike. ' 

The  most  interesting  books  and  the  most  accept- 
able lectures  about  strange  peoples  often  come 
from  those  who  know  their  subjects  least.  They 
were  not  long  enough  among  them  to  discover 


A  MURDERER  55 

the  likeness — that  which  is  so  commonplace 
that  one  cannot  write  books  about  it  or  deliver 
sensational  lectures  regarding  it. 

If  emigration  to  America  has  done  nothing  else, 
it  has  proved  that  but  few  race  characteristics, 
if  any,  are  fixed.  Should  some  sceptic  wish  to 
be  convinced  on  this  point,  let  him  visit  such 
towns  as  South  Bend,  Indiana ;  Scranton,  Pa., 
or  Youngstown,  Ohio,  and  look  at  a  group  of 
Slavs  or  Italians  who  came  here  twenty  years 
ago.  Let  him  go  among  those  who  have 
had  the  full  advantage  of  our  environment,  of 
our  standard  of  living,  of  education  and  of  an 
enlightening  religion.  He  will  find  what  we 
call  race  characteristics  almost  obliterated,  from 
the  faces  of  even  the  first  generation. 

The  sluggish  Pole  has  become  vivacious ; 
while  the  fiery  Italian  has  had  his  blood  cooled 
to  a  temperature  approved  by  even  the  most 
fastidious  of  those  who  believe  that  fervour  and 
enthusiasm  are  not  signs  of  good  breeding. 

My  own  anthropological  acumen  has  some- 
times played  me  sore  tricks,  especially  in  the 
following  case :  I  was  the  guest  of  a  Woman's 
Club,  in  the  Middle  West,  to  speak  on  the 
theme  of  Immigration.  At  the  close  of  the 
session,  refreshments  were  served. 

The  mistress  of  the  house — and  be  it  known 
that  her  ancestors  came  to  this  country  when 
there  was  neither  steerage  nor  cabin — told  me 


56  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

that  she  had  an  Hungarian  maid  whom  she 
wished  me  to  see.  I  looked 'about  the  room  and 
saw  two  young  women  serving  the  guests. 
One  was  a  typical  American  girl,  with  almost  a 
Gibson  face ;  the  daughter  of  the  house,  I  de- 
cided. The  face  of  the  other  showed  some 
Slavic  characteristics,  and  mentally  I  placed  her 
birthplace  in  the  Carpathian  Mountains.  I  was 
congratulating  myself  on  my  good  judgment, 
when  the  young  ladies  came  to  serve  me ;  then  I 
discovered  that  the  one  with  Slavic  features  was 
the  daughter  of  the  house,  while  the  "  Gibson 
girl"  had  been  born  by  the  river  March,  in 
Hungary. 

One  of  the  most  wonderful  sights  from  the  so- 
ciological standpoint  is  the  main  street  of  Scran- 
ton,  Pa.,  and  the  neighbouring  Court-house 
Square.  Scranton  has  a  weekly  corso.  A  vast 
stream  of  young  people  passes  up  and  down  the 
street  on  Saturday  afternoon,  to  see  and  to  be 
seen;  to  court  and  to  be  courted.  I  have 
watched  that  stream  for  hours,  and  although 
fully  eighty  per  cent,  of  those  young  people 
are  of  foreign  birth  or  children  of  the  foreign 
born,  I  could  only  faintly  trace  racial  differ- 
ences. Almost  invariably,  too,  the  racial  marks 
have  been  most  effectually  blotted  out  from  the 
faces  of  those  who  have  had  the  best  advan- 
tages;  that  is,  the  same 'advantages  which  we 
have  had.  It  is  noticeable  that  children  of 


A  MURDERER  57 

the  Southern  Italians  grow  larger  than  their 
parents,  and  would  grow  better  than  they,  if  in  the 
changed  environment  love  would  supply  what 
chance  or  fate  has  denied  them. 

I  believe  in  love  as  a  factor  in  social  redemp- 
tion, not  only  because  I  believe  that  we  are  essen- 
tially alike,  but  because  I  believe  that  most  human 
beings  respond  to  it  more  or  less  quickly.  We 
know  that  children  do,  and  that  we  ourselves 
rarely  outgrow  the  response  to  love. 

I  recall  once  travelling  westward  on  an  immi- 
grant train.  To  begin  with,  the  car  was  very 
much  crowded,  and  after  it  became  part  of  a 
slow  local  train,  it  was  invaded  by  native 
Americans,  who  fretted  much  and  justly,  at  hav- 
ing to  travel  in  an  unventilated,  ill-smelling  car. 

At  one  station  a  mother  came  in,  with  a  child 
about  five  years  of  age.  The  little  one  was  cry- 
ing bitterly,  because  it  had  the  toothache.  Two 
other  children  caught  the  infection  and  lifted  up 
their  voices,  loud  enough  and  long  enough  to 
set  every  passenger  on  edge.  The  mother  of 
the  five  year  old  tried  to  comfort  her  by  telling 
her  that  soon  they  would  be  at  the  dentist's,  and 
he  would  pull  the  naughty  tooth.  That  remark 
failed  to  produce  the  desired  effect,  for  the  little 
girl  fairly  screamed  and  the  two  babies  joined  in 
the  chorus.  Then  the  mother,  growing  angry, 
cried  :  "  Jenny,  if  you  don't  keep  still,  I'll  break 
your  neck  I "  At  which  Jenny,  not  unnaturally, 


58  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

ran  from  her.  I  stretched  out  my  arms,  and 
catching  her  held  the  struggling  form  for  a 
minute,  then  lifted  her  gently  to  my  knee. 

"  Tell  me,  Jenny,"  I  said,  "  where  does  the 
tooth  hurt  ?  " 

She  pointed  to  her  swollen  cheek,  and  I  said : 
"  Now,  dear,  I'll  take  that  toothache  away,"  and 
I  lightly  stroked  the  sore  cheek. 

Here  let  me  say  that  I  am  neither  a  Christian 
Scientist  nor  a  Faith  Healer,  and  that  when  I 
have  a  toothache,  I  go  straightway  to  the  den- 
tist. I  stroked  Jenny's  swollen  cheek  for  a  time 
and  then  asked  :  "  Does  it  still  hurt,  dearie  ? " 
and  Jenny  answered :  "  Not  now.  Do  it  some 
more."  And  I  did. 

"  One,  two,  three  ! "  I  said  at  last  "  I'll  put 
your  toothache  into  my  pocket"  And  lo  I  and 
behold  1  the  toothache  was  gone. 

Relieved  of  pain,  the  child  soon  fell  asleep  in 
my  arms,  and  I  carried  her  back  to  her  mother. 

The  other  children  were  still  crying — challeng- 
ing my  faith  in  love  as  a  soothing  syrup ;  and  I 
accepted  the  challenge. 

One  baby  belonged  to  a  Lithuanian  woman 
who  was  going  to  join  her  husband  in  the  coal 
fields  of  Illinois.  It  required  more  than  love  to 
touch  that  baby  ;  it  needed  a  good  digestion  as 
well ;  for  the  child  was  so  dirty  that  it  seemed 
perilous  to  take  it,  from  whatever  point  I  ap- 
proached Finally,  I  landed  it  safe.  Its  skin 


A  MURDERER  59 

was  hot  and  dry ;  evidently  it  had  a  fever,  and  I 
knew  that  it  would  appreciate  water  without  and 
within.  I  applied  it  liberally,  and  before  long  I 
could  really  love  the  child  ;  for  when  the  dirt  was 
removed,  it  was  fair  to  look  upon.  When  its 
cries  ceased,  as  they  did  soon  after  I  gave  it  a 
cool  drink,  I  laid  it  on  a  seat  far  from  its  mother, 
and  it  went  to  sleep. 

All  this  time  the  third  baby  continued  its  lam- 
entations ;  they  were  the  cries  of  a  very  young 
baby,  and  went  to  my  heart.  I  asked  its  Italian 
mother  to  let  me  take  it,  and  she,  having  wit- 
nessed the  miracles  I  wrought,  had  faith  in  me 
and  gave  me  her  child.  As  soon  as  it  felt  the 
strange,  muscular  arm,  however,  it  howled  with 
renewed  vigour ;  but  I  held  bravely  to  it,  and 
walked  up  and  down  the  car,  and  down  and  up, 
and  up  and  down  again.  I  had  to ;  for  when- 
ever I  attempted  to  sit  down,  the  baby  shrieked 
the  louder,  and  as  I  was  being  eagerly  watched 
by  all  the  passengers,  my  reputation  was  at 
stake.  At  last  I  recalled  a  little  Italian  lullaby, 
one  my  Dalmatian  nurse  used  to  sing  to  me ;  I 
hummed  it  as  I  continued  my  weary  march,  un- 
til the  child's  cries  changed  to  a  low  crooning. 
Then  I  sat  down  and  number  three  fell  asleep. 
Triumphantly  I  carried  it  to  its  mother,  and  took 
my  seat,  much  the  worse  for  wear  and  perspiring 
at  every  pore. 

In  a  short  time  a  benevolent  looking  lady 


60  THE  IMMIGRANT  TID7E 

wearing  eye-glasses  came  to  me  and  said  :  "  1 
beg  your  pardon,  sir,  but  are  you  an  M.  D.  ?  " 

"  No,  madam,"  I  replied,  "  I  am  an  L.  L.  B." 

"  What  is  that  ?  "  she  inquired. 

"  Lover  of  Little  Babies,"  I  answered. 

I  told  this  story  to  my  fellow  passengers  in  the 
cabin  ;  not  only  because  I  am  proud  of  my  hon- 
orary degree,  but  to  prove  my  belief  in  the  fact 
that  most  human  beings  respond  to  love,  and 
also  that  it  is  a  specific  for  many  ills. 

My  theory  may  be  unscientific  and  impracti- 
cal ;  but  my  fellow  voyagers  saw  it  successfully 
carried  out  in  the  steerage  of  that  steamer. 

Shall  I  ever  forget  the  landing  of  the  ship  at 
Naples?  Tony  and  John  Sullivan  and  Pietro  and 
Guisseppi,  resplendent  in  their  American  clothes, 
— eager  to  land  ;  yet  not  forgetting  to  shake  my 
hand  as  they  bade  me  a  smiling  good-bye.  I 
doubt  that  there  was  one  of  those  hundreds  of 
men  whose  life's  history  I  did  not  know,  whose 
hopes  for  the  future  I  did  not  share  and  in  whom 
my  love  had  not  awakened  some  kindly  feeling. 

I  knew  the  women  and  the  children ;  I  was  ex- 
pected to  kiss  the  babies — and  I  did — and  the 
children  all  said  good-bye  to  their  "  Uncle." 
After  all,  I  may  not  have  done  them  any  good, 
but  I  know  that  they  enriched  my  life.  Proudly 
I  looked  at  Mary,  no  longer  "  Dirty  Mary,"  and 
her  clean  face  made  me  happy ;  while  her  smile 
was  worth  much  more  than  gold.  I  had  new 


A  MURDERER  61 

brothers  and  sisters,  nephews,  nieces  and  chil- 
dren. 

My  orthodox  friend  from  Boston  stood  beside 
me  when  they  landed.  "  This  is  like  heaven," 
he  said  as  he  looked  around. 

The  matchless  bay,  with  its  blue  water,  glit- 
tered in  the  light  of  the  sun,  which  made  a  pave- 
ment of  gold  fit  for  angels  and  spirits  to  walk 
upon.  It  was  like  heaven  to  me  also ;  not  be- 
cause I  thought  of  golden  pavements  or  harps 
or  halos,  or  any  of  the  glories  which  the  imagi- 
nation might  picture  to  itself.  To  me  it  seemed 
like  heaven  because  "  The  redeemed  walk  there," 
those  whom  America  is  lifting  from  the  steerage 
into  the  many  cabins  of  the  Lord. 


IV 

REFLEX  INFLUENCES 

THE  ports  of  Naples,  Triest  and  Fiume 
felt  the  full  tide  of  returning  immigra- 
tion, and  although  it  came  sweeping  in 
with  unprecedented  force,  it  was  not  regarded  as 
a  calamity.  For  hours  at  each  port,  noisy  vend- 
ers of  fruit,  and  "runners"  for  modest  lodging 
places  hung  about  the  ship4  and  every  passenger 
who  disembarked  was  an  asset,  not  only  to  the 
port  in  which  he  waited  for  the  train  or  boat 
which  would  carry  him  to  his  native  place,  but 
to  the  whole  economic  life  of  his  nation. 

There  was  something  almost  grotesquely 
grandiose  in  the  air  with  which  each  immigrant 
viewed  the  shores  of  his  native  land,  and  an  un- 
conscious exaggeration  of  our  American  ways  in 
his  walk  and  talk,  and  the  prodigality  with  which 
he  handled  small  change. 

The  street  venders  and  purveyors  of  small 
pleasures  recognized  this,  and  appealed  to  his 
newly  awakened  generosity  by  charging  him 
twice  as  much  for  everything  as  they  charged 
when  he  was  outward  bound. 

The  customs  officers  had  a  sharpened  vision 
62 


REFLEX  INFLUENCES  63 

and  did  not  treat  his  baggage  with  the  usual 
disrespect.  The  brass-bound  trunks  contained 
phonographs  to  disturb  the  age-long  silence  of 
some  mountain  village,  samples  of  American 
whiskey,  "the  kind  that  burns  all  the  way 
down,"  and  therefore  characteristic  of  our 
temper.  There  were  cigars,  manufactured  by 
the  American  Tobacco  Trust,  and  safely  con- 
cealed ;  for  the  Austrian  and  Italian  govern- 
ments have  been  wise  enough  to  create  a  monop- 
oly of  their  own  on  tobacco. 

Gold  trinkets,  too,  there  were,  for  some  Duk 
cinea  in  the  Apennines  or  the  Carpathians — 
trinkets  brought  as  tokens  of  faithfulness,  which 
is  often  as  spurious  as  the  metal ;  and  ah,  yes ! 
there  is  something  else  which  they  bring  and 
no  customs  boundary  can  keep  it  out.  It  is 
hidden  away  in  the  innermost  being  and  will 
come  to  light  some  day,  although  now  the 
wanderer  himself  may  be  unconscious  of  it. 

The  returned  immigrants  scatter  into  thou- 
sands of  villages,  rousing  them  from  their  com- 
monplaceness  by  stories  of  adventure,  boasts  of 
mighty  deeds  of  valor  and  praise  or  criticism  of 
our  strange  customs- 
Sitting  in  the  inn  of  a  little  Alpine  village,  I 
once  overheard  one  of  these  immigrants  com- 
paring the  slow  ways  of  the  natives  with  our 
swifter  pace. 

"  In  America  the  trains  go  so  fast  that  they 


64  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

can't  stop  to  take  on  passengers  ;  they  just  have 
hooks  with  which  they  are  caught  as  the  train 
flies  past 

"They  have  reaping  machines,"  this  candi- 
date for  the  "  Ananias  Club "  continued,  "  to 
which  a  dozen  horses  are  hitched,  and  the  grain 
is  cut,  threshed,  ground  to  flour  and  baked,  in  a 
few  minutes.  All  you  have  to  do  is  to  touch 
a  button  and  you  can  get  bread  or  cake  as  you 
choose." 

All  this  his  auditors  believed  ;  but  when  he 
told  them  that  we  build  houses  forty  stories  high, 
their  credulity  was  strained  to  the  breaking 
point ;  although  he  swore  by  the  memory  of  his 
departed  mother  that  it  was  so,  and  that  he  had 
seen  it  with  his  own  eyes. 

One  reason  that  the  returned  immigrant  is 
so  quickly  recognized  is,  that  he  purposely 
emphasizes  the  difference  between  himself  and 
those  who  have  remained  at  home.  He  does 
everything  and  wears  everything  which  will  make 
him  like  an  American,  even  if  over  here  he  had 
scarcely  moved  out  of  his  group  or  come  in  touch 
with  our  civilization.  With  pride  the  men  wear 
our  clothing,  including  stiff  collars  and  ties,  and 
when  one  is  in  doubt  as  to  a  man's  relation  to  our 
life,  a  glance  at  his  feet  is  sufficient ;  "  for  by 
their  " — shoes — "  ye  shall  know  them." 

While  one  may  deplore  the  loss  of  the  pictur- 
<esque  in  European  peasant  life,  there  is  an  ethicaJ 


REFLEX  INFLUENCES  65 

significance  in  the  immigrant's  American  gar- 
ments which  is  of  rather  vital  importance. 

The  Polish  peasant  in  his  native  environ- 
ment is  one  of  the  laziest  among  European 
labourers.  Wrapped  in  his  sheepskin  coat, 
summer  and  winter,  walking  barefoot  the 
greater  part  of  the  year,  and  in  winter  putting 
his  feet  into  clumsy,  heavy  boots  which  impeded 
his  progress,  these  garments  fitted  his  temper. 
They  were  heavy,  inexpensive,  never  changing, 
and  rarely  needed  renewal.  The  American 
clothes  he  wears  are  a  symbol  of  his  altered 
character.  They  mean  a  new  standard  of  living 
even  as  they  mean  a  new  standard  of  effort. 

In  America  the  Polish  labourer  loses  his  native 
laziness.  The  journey  in  itself  has  shaken  him 
out  of  his  lethargy ;  the  high  gearing  of  our 
industrial  wheels,  the  pressure  brought  to  bear 
upon  him  by  the  American  foreman,  the  general 
atmosphere  of  our  life  charged  by  an  invigorat- 
ing ozone,  and  the  absence  of  a  leisure  class,  at 
least  from  the  industrial  community,  have,  in  a 
few  years,  changed  what  many  observers  regarded 
as  a  fixed  characteristic. 

The  whole  Slavic  race  is  inclined  to  lead  an 
easy  life,  and  immigration  is  destined  to  have  a 
permanent  effect  upon  it ;  for  the  returned  im- 
migrant acts  contagiously  upon  his  community. 
Unbiased  landowners  and  manufacturers  have 
told  me  that  we  have  trained  their  workmen  in 


66  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

industry,  that  we  have  quickened  their  wits  and 
that  while  wages  have  risen  nearly  60%  in  al- 
most all  departments  of  labour,  the  efficiency  of 
the  labourers  has  been  correspondingly  increased, 
most  noticeably  where  the  largest  number  of 
returned  immigrants  has  entered  the  home 
field. 

The  Slavic  peasants  both  in  Hungary  and 
Poland  were  gradually  losing  their  allotted  land, 
and  were  socially  and  physically  deteriorating, 
prior  to  the  movement  to  America.  Indolence 
coupled  with  intemperance  drove  them  into  the 
hands  of  usurers,  and  they  dropped  into  the 
landless  class,  thus  becoming  dependent  upon 
casual  labour. 

The  returned  immigrant  began  to  buy  land 
which  the  large  landowners  were  often  forced 
to  sell,  because  wages  had  risen  abnormally  and 
labourers  were  often  not  to  be  had  at  any  price. 
In  the  four  years  between  1899  and  1903,  land 
owned  by  peasants  increased  in  some  districts 
to  418%,  and  taking  the  immigrant  districts 
in  Austro-Hungary  and  Russian-Poland  together, 
the  increase  in  four  years  reaches  the  incredible 
figure  of  173%. 

In  three  districts  of  Russian-Poland  the 
peasants  bought  in  those  four  years  14,694  acres 
of  farmland.  This  of  course  means  not  only 
that  money  was  brought  back  from  America, 
but  that  the  peasant .  at  home  has  become  more 


REFLEX  INFLUENCES  67 

industrious,  if  not  always  more  temperate  and 
frugal. 

The  little  village  of  Kochanovce  in  the  district 
of  Trenczin  in  Hungary,  out  of  which  but  few 
had  emigrated  to  America,  and  to  which  not 
many  families  had  returned,  has,  under  this  new 
economic  impulse,  bought  the  land  on  which  the 
villagers'  forefathers  were  serfs  and  on  which  they 
had  worked  during  the  harvest  for  about  twenty 
cents  a  day.  The  peasants  bought  the  whole 
baronial  estate,  including  the  castle,  giving  a 
mortgage  for  the  largest  part  of  the  purchase 
sum  ;  but  they  are  now  the  owners  of  one  of  the 
finest  estates  in  Hungary,  and  the  mortgage 
drives  them  to  work  as  they  have  never  worked 
before.  This  same  impulse  has  struck  the  district 
of  Nyitra  in  which  the  land  had  almost  gone  out 
of  the  peasants'  hands,  lost  by  the  same  causes, 
intemperance  and  indolence. 

In  the  last  five  years  the  change  has  been  so 
great  as  to  seem  marvellous.  Usurers  have 
been  driven  out  of  business  and  the  peasant's 
house  has  ceased  to  be  a  mud  hut  with  a  straw- 
thatched  roof.  In  fact,  that  type  of  building  has 
been  condemned  by  law,  at  the  initiative  of  re- 
turned immigrants. 

The  shopkeepers  throughout  the  whole  immi- 
grant territory  rejoice.  Their  stock  is  in- 
creased by  many  varieties  of  goods  ;  for  the 
peasant  now  wants  the  best  there  is  in  the 


68  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

market,  often  useless  luxuries,  to  be  sure ;  but 
while  he  may  spend  his  money  "  for  that  which 
is  not  meat,"  he  wants  to  spend,  and  that  means 
effort,  than  which  the  Slavs  as  a  race  need  noth- 
ing more  for  their  social  and  political  salvation. 

Their  advance  is  strikingly  illustrated  by  the 
following  examples. 

The  B.  Brothers  of  Vienna  are  manufacturers 
of  neckties.  On  a  recent  visit  to  their  estab- 
lishment I  met  some  buyers  from  Hungary, 
one  of  whom,  when  the  salesman  showed  him 
the  class  of  goods  which  he  had  been  in  the 
habit  of  buying,  highly  coloured,  stiff  bows  of 
cheap  cotton,  said : 

"  We  have  no  use  for  such  stuff.  This  is  the 
tie  we  want,"  and  he  pulled  out  an  American 
tie  of  rather  fine  quality  and  the  latest  pattern. 

I  had  to  promise  the  head  of  the  firm  of  B. 
Brothers  to  put  him  in  touch  with  an  American 
haberdasher's  journal,  so  that  he  may  keep  him- 
self informed  as  to  our  styles. 

Partly  to  test  the  influence  of  immigration  in  the 
remotest  region  of  Hungary  and  partly  to  sat- 
isfy my  craving  for  a  certain  kind  of  candy,  I 
visited  a  little  village  hidden  away  in  the  Car- 
pathians, where  neither  steam  nor  electricity  has 
yet  obtruded  itself.  There  in  a  certain  store,  I 
bought  my  very  first  sweets,  and  although  I 
have  since  tasted  the  delicacies  of  many  civiliza- 
tions, the  lingering  flavour  of  that  first  candy 


REFLEX  INFLUENCES  69 

still  seems  the  most  delicious,  and  its  taste  has 
never  left  my  palate.  It  was  hard,  highly 
coloured  and  usually  exposed  to  flies  and  dust ; 
but  it  was  my  first  love,  and  my  first  pennies 
were  sacrificed  to  it ;  so  I  was  eager  to  revel  in 
its  delights  again. 

I  went  to  that  viHage  in  the  spirit  of  one  who 
goes  on  a  pilgrimage,  and  as  one  seeks  one's 
favourite  shrine  so  did  I  seek  that  little  store. 
My  palate's  memory  led  me  to  the  very  door ; 
but  in  front  of  it,  forcing  itself  upon  my  candy- 
hungry  gaze,  was  a  penny  in  the  slot  machine, 
out  of  which,  in  response  to  two  Hungarian 
Filers,  came  dropping  a  stick  of  genuine  Ameri- 
can chewing-gum.  It  is  needless  to  say  that 
my  primitive,  highly-coloured  candy  was  no 
more.  In  its  place  were  caramels  and  butter- 
cups very  much  like  those  I  had  left  behind  me 
in  the  United  States. 

Now  I  do  not  mean  to  imply  that  chewing- 
gum  and  caramels  have  any  social  or  ethical 
bearing  upon  my  subject;  but  they  do  prove 
that  the  old  order  changes  and  that  the  new  has 
been  brought  in  by  the  immigrant.  Still  within 
the  sphere  of  the  economic,  yet  having  large 
ethical  value,  is  the  fact  that  the  returned  immi- 
grant brings  gold,  not  only  in  his  pocket  but  in 
his  teeth.  I  certainly  never  realized  the  far- 
reaching  social  and  ethical  value  of  the  dentist 
until  I  saw  the  contrast  between  the  returned 


70  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

immigrant,  especially  the  contrast  between  his 
wife  and  daughter  and  the  women  who  had  re- 
mained at  home. 

If  it  ever  was  true  that  coarse  fare  makes 
strong  teeth,  it  certainly  has  not  been  true  dur- 
ing the  period  of  my  observations  among  the 
peasant  people  of  Europe. 

Where  I  know  the  bread  to  be  coarsest  and 
the  fare  simplest,  as  for  instance  in  impoverished 
Montenegro,  there  the  old,  toothless  hags  are 
most  numerous,  and  even  the  mouths  of  the 
young  are  disfigured  by  decaying  teeth.  This 
is  especially  true  of  the  Alpine  and  Carpathian 
regions,  out  of  which  many  of  the  Slavic  immi- 
grants come ;  there,  a  woman  of  forty  is  usually 
an  old  woman  because  she  has  no  teeth.  She  is 
ugly  in  consequence,  and  therefore  neglected  by 
her  husband. 

The  immigrant  woman  has  discovered  that 
gold  in  the  teeth  renews  one's  youth,  that  it  pre- 
serves one's  charms  and  is  apt  to  keep  lovers 
and  husbands  more  loyal.  Mistresses  in  America 
know  how  readily  these  foreign  servants  sacrifice 
their  wages  upon  the  dentist's  altar. 

Not  only  does  dentistry  keep  the  women  young 
and  their  lovers  faithful,  it  keeps  the  men  in  good 
health,  adds  to  their  self-respect,  and  into  regions 
hitherto  untouched  by  their  beneficent  influence, 
it  has  introduced  tooth-brushes  and  dentifrice. 

If  the  returned  immigrant  can  be  easily  recog- 


Before  he  emigrated 


When  the  Immigrant  comes  home. 
A  CONTRAST  IN  HOMES 


REFLEX  INFLUENCES  71 

nized  by  his  shoes  and  by  gold  in  his  teeth,  his 
residence  can  be  quickly  detected  from  the  fact 
that  day  and  night  his  isba  is  blessed  by  fresh 
air  ;  and  perhaps  more  significant  to  the  world's 
well-being  than  the  American  economic  doctrine 
of  the  "  Open  Door,"  is  its  physiological  doctrine 
of  the  open  window. 

Pastor  Holubek,  of  Bosacz  in  Hungary,  when 
I  asked  him  what  effect  the  returned  immigrant 
had  upon  his  parish,  said  : 

"  A  good  effect.  The  returned  immigrant  is 
a  new  man.  He  carries  himself  differently,  he 
commands  the  respect  of  his  fellows,  he  treats 
his  wife  better  and  he  keeps  the  windows  of  his 
isba  open." 

The  last  two  facts  are  exceedingly  important, 
and  my  observations  bear  out  his  testimony. 
Wherever  I  saw  an  open  window  in  the  evening, 
I  could  with  perfect  assurance  open  the  door  and 
say  :  "  How  do  you  do?"  and  I  was  certain  to 
be  greeted  by  a  still  more  emphatic  and  cordial, 
"  How  do  you  do?" 

For  some  inexplicable  reason,  Europeans  of 
all  classes  are  averse  to  air  in  sleeping  rooms, 
especially  at  night.  Night  air  is  supposed  to 
hold  all  sorts  of  evils,  and  even  the  medical  pro- 
fession, progressive  as  it  is,  has  not  yet  freed  it- 
self from  this  terrible  superstition. 

Frequently  I  have  discovered  in  the  returned 
immigrant  a  quickening  of  the  moral  sense,  es- 


72  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

pecially  among  the  men  who  had  come  in  con* 
tact  with  the  better  class  of  American  mechanics ; 
and  the  discovery  was  as  welcome  as  unexpected. 
I  saw  this  emphasized  during  my  trip  last  year. 
It  was  on  a  Sunday's  journey  among  the  vil- 
lages of  the  valley  of  the  Waag.  Picturesque 
groups  were  moving  along  the  highway  to  and 
from  the  church  and  into  the  village  and  out  of 
it.  The  appearance  of  my  companions  and  my- 
self always  created  a  great  sensation  and  never 
a  greater  one  than  on  Sunday  when  the  peasants 
were  at  leisure.  They  took  it  as  a  special  privi- 
lege to  see  "  genuine  Americans,"  and  those  who 
had  been  over  here  were  quickly  on  the  scene  to 
air  their  English  and  to  show  their  familiarity 
with  our  kind. 

It  was  a  reciprocal  pleasure  ;  for  it  seemed  like 
a  breath  from  home  to  hear  men  talk  intelli- 
gently of  Hazleton,  Pittsburg,  Scranton  and 
Wilkes-Barre ;  moreover  it  gave  us  a  splendid 
opportunity  to  test  the  effect  of  our  civiliza- 
tion upon  them. 

In  one  village  a  husband  with  his  wife  and 
two  children  came  out  of  their  isba,  and  we  could 
easily  imagine  ourselves  at  home ;  for  the  whole 
family  looked  as  if  it  had  just  come  from  a  grand 
bargain  sale  at  one  of  our  department  stores. 
What  seemed  most  delightful  to  us  was  the  way 
in  which  the  man  spoke  of  his  wife,  and  no 
American  husband  could  have  been  more  care- 


REFLEX  INFLUENCES  73 

ful  of  her  than  was  he ;  all  this  in  striking  con- 
trast to  the  peasants  to  whom  the  woman  is  still 
an  inferior  being. 

In  conversation  with  them,  I  took  the  returned 
immigrant  as  my  subject  and  told  them  some- 
thing of  our  own  social  order  as  shown  in  the 
relation  of  husband  and  wife  in  America ;  upon 
which  one  of  the  peasants  told  a  very  ugly  and 
realistic  story  to  illustrate  what  he  thought  of 
women.  Then  it  was  that  the  unexpected  hap- 
pened. My  immigrant  friend  blushed — yes, 
blushed — just  as  I  should  expect  any  well-bred 
man  to  blush  under  similar  circumstances,  and 
said  to  me :  "  Don't  mind  him.  He  has  a  dirty 
mouth.  He  may  after  all  have  a  clean  heart." 

The  man  who  blushed  had  been  five  years 
in — Pittsburg  I 

The  change  brought  about  through  immigra- 
tion, even  in  a  youth  of  the  better  class,  whose 
character  had  been  spoiled  by  his  early  training, 
was  shown  in  a  young  Magyar  in  Budapest. 
That  city  has  the  unenviable  reputation  of  being 
one  of  the  most  immoral  cities  in  Europe.  The 
immorality  of  the  great  cities  is  everywhere 
very  much  alike  in  certain  respects ;  still  it 
seems  to  me  that  a  city  is  more  or  less  immoral, 
not  according  to  the  size  of  its  tenderloin  dis- 
trict, but  in  how  far  immorality  has  been  ac- 
cepted as  the  norm  of  life.  In  that  respect  Buda- 
pest is  considerably  in  the  lead  ;  for  its  youth  is 


74  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

nourished  in  an  atmosphere  of  indolence,  false 
pride  and  various  phases  of  social  impurity. 

The  family  to  which  this  particular  young 
man  belonged  boasted  three  sons  of  whom  he  is 
the  oldest.  He  went  the  road  which  leads 
to  destruction,  and  he  went  with  the  full  knowl- 
edge of  his  parents,  for  both  were  going  their 
own  gait  in  the  same  direction. 

Finally  he  was  forced  to  run  away  because  he 
had  transgressed  the  law.  He  landed  in  New 
York  penniless  and  fortunately  without  friends. 
He  learned  all  the  lessons  which  homesickness, 
hunger  and  cold  could  teach  him,  and  as  there 
was  no  other  way  to  escape  them  than  by  labour, 
this  youth,  who  never  had  worked,  began  driving 
a  milk  wagon  and  ultimately  graduated  into  a 
clerkship.  When  I  saw  him  among  his  own 
people  in  Budapest  where  he  was  visiting,  he 
was  so  changed  in  his  physique  that  not  even 
his  closest  friends  recognized  him.  Although 
the  law  had  been  appeased  and  by  the  death  of  his 
father  he  had  the  opportunity  to  conduct  the 
business  bequeathed  him,  his  awakened  con- 
science rebelled  against  the  conditions  around 
him  and  he  was  eager  to  return  to  America. 

It  was  interesting  to  note  that  his  friends 
found  him  unbearable,  declaring  him  no  longer 
a  gentleman  because  he  worked  with  his  hands 
and  was  not  ashamed  of  it;  while  the  young 
ladies  decided  that  he  had  been  spoiled  by  his 


REFLEX  INFLUENCES  75 

sojourn  in  America  because  he  was  not  eternally 
kissing  their  hands  and  had  forgotten  how  to 
make  pretty  and  meaningless  compliments. 

Of  course  one  does  not  always  receive  favour- 
able replies  to  one's  questions  as  to  the  effect 
of  the  returned  immigrant  upon  his  community. 
Manufacturers  who  exploited  his  labour,  large 
landowners  to  whom  he  was  no  more  than  a 
serf,  and  priests,  uneasy  about  the  effect  of  the 
contagion,  are  usually  very  critical ;  but  these 
unfavourable  replies  are  only  a  proof  that  the 
leaven  is  at  work. 

I  put  the  question  to  some  guests  at  a  con- 
firmation feast.  The  priest  told  me  that  the 
immigrants  become  Atheists  and  Salvationists. 
In  his  mind  there  was  not  much  difference  be- 
tween them.  The  judge  told  me  that  they  be- 
come immoral;  which  meant  that  they  do  not 
pay  him  sufficient  revenue.  The  host,  a  wealthy 
landowner,  said  that  they  become  Socialists  and 
Anarchists;  which  meant  that  they  demand 
higher  wages  and  better  treatment.  All  agreed 
that  emigration  has  been  of  large  economic  value. 

So  far  as  my  observation  goes,  I  feel  certain 
that  emigration  has  been  of  inestimable  eco- 
nomic and  ethical  value  to  the  three  great  mon- 
archies chiefly  concerned,  namely :  Italy, 
Austro-Hungary  and  Russia.  It  has  withdrawn 
inefficient  labour  and  has  returned  some  of  it 
capable  of  more  and  better  work ;  it  has  lifted 


76  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

the  status  of  the  peasantry  to  a  degree  which 
could  not  have  been  achieved  even  by  a  revo- 
lution; it  has  educated  the  neglected  masses, 
lifted  them  to  a  higher  standard  of  living  and 
has  implanted  new  and  vital  ideals. 

That  there  are  attendant  evils,  no  one  will 
question.  There  is  much  more  discontent  than 
there  ever  has  been,  more  haste  and  less  leisure ; 
there  is  less  respect  for  authority  and  for 
established  institutions  ;  certain  social  evils  have 
been  accentuated ;  the  newly  acquired  wealth 
has  proved  disastrous  to  some,  and  family  ties 
have  been  strained  by  the  absence  of  the  heads 
of  many  households. 

Nevertheless,  an  Hungarian  statesman,  who 
had  risen  from  the  ranks,  said  to  me  :  "  America 
has  been  a  blessing  to  us.  Had  Columbus  not 
discovered  it,  all  Europe  would  still  be  in  servi- 
tude, and  had  it  not  been  rediscovered  by  our 
peasants,  they  would  not  have  had  much  chance 
to  get  their  necks  from  under  the  yoke. 

"  America  is  our  leaven  and  will  yet  be  our 
salvation." 

I  have  watched  the  leaven  at  work,  and  in 
the  succeeding  chapters  I  have  recorded  some 
concrete  instances,  which  clearly  show  that  "A 
little  leaven,  leaveneth  the  whole  lump." 


OUR  CRITICS 

THE  third-class  waiting-room  in  the 
Oderberg  station,  on  the  Northern  Rail- 
road of  Austria,  is  splendid  vantage 
ground  from  which  to  watch  the  racial  and  na- 
tional conglomerate  that  forms  the  insecure  struc- 
ture called  the  Austro-Hungarian  monarchy. 

Here  from  her  East  and  West,  her  North  and 
South,  one  meets  those  great  social  currents  which 
stream  from  the  mountains  to  the  plains  and  from 
the  villages  to  the  cities.  Here,  also,  the  tides 
of  immigration  come  in  and  go  out,  and  by  their 
volume  one  can  judge  the  prosperity  of  the  United 
States,  or  at  least  the  condition  of  our  labour 
markets. 

Here  the  "spick  and  span"  German,  from 
across  the  border,  meets  his  less  vigorous  and 
more  "  gemuethlich  "  cousin,  the  Austrian. 

Here  the  Moravian  and  the  Czech  touch  el- 
bows and  glory  in  their  Slavic  speech — the  age- 
long battle  for  the  supremacy  of  their  language 
being  one  of  the  few  points  which  they  have  won 
*n  this  contentious  monarchy. 

This  is  also  the  meeting  place  of  Southern  and 
Western  Slavs,  and  here  the  fierce  looking  Bos- 

77 


78  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

nians  carry,  in  their  erstwhile  weapon  belts,  pins, 
pipes,  jack-knives  and  razors,  which  they  sell  to 
their  Slavic  brothers  of  the  West ;  they  even 
deign  to  speak  in  broken  German  to  the  hated 
*'  Schwabs,"  when  driving  their  bargains. 

Glancing  around  the  crowded  waiting-room, 
one  sees  Ruthenians  and  Wallachians,  in  pic- 
turesque garb,  travelling  from  their  impoverished 
mountain  homes  to  the  upper  Danubian  plain. 
They  are  harvesters,  and  their  backs  are  bent 
under  the  weight  of  crude  cooking  utensils  and 
primitive  harvest  implements. 

Close  to  this  group  are  fiercely  moustachioed 
Magyars,  in  their  semi-Oriental,  loose,  white  linen 
trousers  and  heavy  sheepskin  coats.  They  are 
going  to  take  charge  of  the  flocks  of  sheep  on 
some  lordly  estates ;  they  know  the  ways  of  all 
four-footed  animals,  and  are  considered  faithful 
shepherds. 

In  one  corner  stand  smoothly  shaven,  coarse 
featured  Slovaks,  in  clothing,  home-made,  from 
their  felt  boots  to  their  felt  hats ;  primitive  folk 
they  are,  seeking  labour  in  the  industrial  cities 
along  this  busy  highway. 

Of  course,  there  are  Jews  from  the  East  and 
the  West ;  as  far  removed  from  each  other  in 
culture  and  beliefs  as  those  two  points  of  the 
compass,  yet  all  swayed  by  the  same  mysterious 
force  which  at  its  best  turns  their  vision  towards 
Jehovah,  and  at  its  worst  towards  Mammon. 


OUR  CRITICS  79 

They  all  are  divided  more  or  less  by  speech, 
blood  and  faith  and  are  united,  only  by  the  pov- 
erty which  compels  them  to  travel  third-class  on 
the  government's  railways,  whose  low-zone  tariff 
encourages  the  migrations  of  its  people;  thus 
easily  relieving  economic  distress  in  some  regions 
and  providing  labour  where  it  is  needed. 

When  the  train  comes,  the  conductor  sorts  this 
mixture  of  humanity  according  to  his  prejudices 
or  the  seeming  ability  of  the  travellers  to  reward 
him  for  rescuing  them  from  this  malodorous  con- 
glomerate, by  providing  a  less  crowded  compart- 
ment. As  a  rule,  I  am  willing  to  be  thus  res- 
cued, but  not  this  time  ;  for  there  is  one  element 
in  evidence  which  makes  the  well-known  mass 
of  people  more  interesting  than  usual ;  namely, 
the  returning  immigrant.  "  Where  thou  goest,  1 
will  go,"  even  if  it  was  into  the  thick  of  bag  and 
baggage  carried  on  the  backs  of  men  and  women, 
through  the  narrow  door,  into  an  already  over- 
crowded compartment  where  windows  were  her- 
metically sealed  and  where  the  air  was  not  only 
stiflingly  hot  but  full  of  mysterious  odours,  much 
unlike  those  of  "  Araby  the  blest." 

There  seemed  no  limit  to  the  capacity  of  the 
car  or  to  the  patience  of  the  passengers  who 
were  being  pushed  about  like  cattle ;  until  the 
conductor  attempted  to  thrust  in  a  woman  of 
unusual  size,  who  evidently  was  acquainted  with 
our  ways  and  certain  words  of  our  language. 


8o  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

She  let  loose  upon  the  official  the  vials  of  her 
wrath,  her  realistic  Slavic  becoming  fairly  lurid, 
reenforced  as  it  was  by  English  words,  which, 
when  used  in  America,  make  even  printers  gasp, 
when  they  must  be  printed.  Were  it  not  that 
such  words  can  be  indicated  only  by  dashes,  it 
would  prove  interesting  to  record  them  here,  to 
show  what  changes  they  undergo  upon  the  lips 
of  our  apt  pupils. 

Puffing  and  panting,  this  colossal  woman  forced 
her  way  through  the  'crowded  car,  looking  for  a 
seat.  I  gave  her  my  place,  and  as  she  accepted  it, 
she  asked  laconically,  "'Merican  man?"  When 
I  nodded  assent,  the  point  of  contact  was  made, 
we  shook  hands  and  said  :  ,"  How  do  you  do?" 

Like  an  electric  current  the  greeting  communi- 
cated itself  from  bench  to  bench.  A  woman  across 
the  aisle  caught  the  force  of  it  and  waved  her 
hand  over  the  heads  of  the  crowd  as  she  cried  : 
"  How  do  you  do  ?  "  She  held  up  a  fretful  boy 
of  five,  who  raised  his  voice  in  lamentation  ;  while 
she  said :  "  Behave  yourself,  kid ;  there's  an 
American  boss  on  the  car."  But  the  boy,  thor- 
oughly American,  would  not  be  frightened  by 
threats  of  boss,  police,  or  any  other  bugaboo.  He 
pulled  at  her  skirt,  clutched  her  expansive  hat, 
nearly  tearing  it  from  its  insecure  moorings,  then 
rolled  the  window  shade  up  and  down,  suddenly 
letting  it  go  with  a  spring — after  which,  all  in  one 
breath,  he  peremptorily  demanded  candy,  water. 


OUR  CRITICS  81 

bananas,  and  that  his  mother  make  the  reluctant 
"  choo-choo  cars  "  go  at  once. 

This  woman's  husband  is  a  merchant  in  Wil- 
merding,  Pa.,  and  she,  after  many  years  in 
America,  was  going  home  to  visit  her  people, 
bringing  this  hopeful  youngster  with  her  to  dis- 
turb the  "  peace  of  Jerusalem." 

"  If  he  were  my  boy,"  growled  the.  unfortunate 
man  who  sat  on  the  same  bench  with  him,  "  I'd 
throw  him  out  the  window ; "  and  the  woman 
apologetically  said :  "  He  is  an  American  boy, 
and  they  are  all  like  this.  You  can't  tame  them. 
Whipping  does  no  good." 

"  Well,"  the  man  muttered,  under  his  fierce 
moustachio,  "  I  am  glad  I  am  not  living  in 
America." 

A  young  Moravian  woman,  who,  in  America, 
had  exchanged  her  peasant  garb  and  ruggedness 
for  our  more  expensive  dress  and  gentler  ways, 
corroborated  the  mother's  statement.  She  had 
worked  in  American  homes  and  testified  :  "  Chil- 
dren in  America  are  all  terrible.  Nothing  is  sa- 
cred to  them ;  neither  the  kitchen  nor  the 
church.  It's  because  they  have  so  few  children ; 
they  spoil  them." 

"Yes,"  agreed  a  young  Hungarian  Jew;  "in 
America,  they  have  the  one  child  system,  and 
many  women  do  not  have  even  one  child.  They 
are  so  sterile  You  should  see  how  thin  and  flat- 
chested  they  are," 


82  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

Then,  in  his  realistic  way,  he  described  the 
physique  of  our  women.  He  was  a  great  talker, 
that  young  Jew.  Having  been  unsuccessful  in 
New  York,  he  was  returning  home  a  cynic  and  a 
severe  critic. 

"  Hm  1 "  he  continued  ;  "  the  women  of  America 
are  the  boss.  Just  think  of  it ;  you  can't  get  a 
woman  to  black  your  boots.  That  is  the  reason 
so  many  men  get  a  divorce." 

He  knew  all  about  the  American  woman's  lux- 
uries, and  talked  loudly  and  long  of  silken  petti- 
coats, lace  waists,  and  other  sartorial  mysteries  ; 
for  he  had  worked  in  a  tailor's  shop  and  was  ac- 
quainted with  all  woman's  "  doings." 

"  The  American  men  are  to  blame  1 "  exclaimed 
a  man  who  was  crowded  close  to  me.  He  had 
returned  from  America  some  time  before,  and  was 
travelling  up  and  down  the  country,  buying  but- 
ter and  eggs.  He  had  caught  a  vision  of  the 
American  man  and  his  business  methods  in  Chi- 
cago, where  he  had  worked  in  a  large  packing- 
house, and  in  a  modest  way,  he  was  applying  his 
knowledge. 

"  They  work  like  niggers,"  he  continued,  "  and 
let  their  women  remain  in  idleness,  sitting  all  day 
long  in  rocking-chairs,  rocking,  rocking" — and 
he  imitated  the  motion — "  and  eating  candy. 
Just  think  of  it !  They  buy  candy  by  the 
pound ! " 

Evidently  he  was  not  imitating  the  example 


OUR  CRITICS  83 

of  American  men  in  the  treatment  of  his  wife 
who  was  with  him,  sharing  the  hardships  of  the 
journeys  from  village  to  village.  While  he  was 
speaking,  she  drew  their  luncheon  from  her  ample 
pockets :  hard  rye  bread  and  Salami,  a  sausage 
as  hard  as  the  bread. 

"  No,  indeed  1 "  He  had  not  taken  her  to 
America.  "  That's  where  they  spoil  the  women." 

His  aspiration  was  to  ultimately  control  the 
butter  and  egg  business  in  his  region,  and  future 
historians  may  record  his  name  as  a  "  Captain  of 
Industry,"  with  those  of  Armour  and  Swift.  He 
knew  a  little  of  every  language  spoken  in  the 
dual  monarchy,  and  that,  together  with  the  fact 
that  he  spoke  some  English,  made  him  a  most 
interesting  travelling  companion.  The  greater 
part  of  the  time  he  preached  to  the  peasants  the 
gospel  of  business.  "  You  poor  rascals,"  he  said ; 
"  you  work  in  the  fields  from  sunrise  to  sunset, 
eat  bread-soup,  and  not  much  else,  three  times  a 
day,  and  carry  loads  heavy  enough  to  break  your 
backs ;  while  the  Jews,  who  do  the  business,  live 
in  fine  houses,  eat  the  best  spring  geese,  which 
you  raise  for  them,  and  send  their  children  to 
college.  You  ought  to  go  to  America  and  see 
business.  Even  the  little  boys  of  rich  people  sell 
newspapers  and  lemonade  in  front  of  their 
fathers'  palaces.  Go  into  business  and  the  Jews 
will  have  to  go  back  to  Jerusalem  where  they 
came  from." 


84  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

The  peasants  all  nodded  their  heads  and  said : 
"  Tak  ye,  tak  ye,"  it  is  so,  it  is  so  ;  but  one  could 
see  in  their  placid,  half-stupid  faces,  that  if  they 
ever  have  the  spirit  which  ventures,  they  must 
first  go  to  America. 

The  corpulent  woman  who  had  accepted  my 
seat  knew  something  about  the  lot  of  her  kind  in 
America,  and,  having  by  this  time  recovered  her 
breath,  she  very  emphatically  gave  the  butter  and 
egg  man  her  views  on  the  subject 

"  You  say  that  women  don't  work  in  America, 
and  that  they  are  spoiled?  I  just  come  from 
there ;  I  have  been  there  fourteen  years,  in  Mc- 
Keesport,  Pa.  I  have  kept  boarders  ever  since 
I  went  there,  and  I  haven't  had  time  to  sit  in  a 
rocking-chair,  and  my  husband  never  bought  me 
any  candy.  It's  true,  you  can't  beat  us  women 
there  as  you  can  over  here.  Soon  after  we  went 
there,  my  husband  beat  me  when  he  was  drunk. 
I  took  it  as  patiently  as  I  did  here,  and  he  beat 
me  again  and  I  didn't  say  anything ;  although  I 
carried  a  black  eye  for  a  week.  Then  the  young 
woman  who  takes  the  money  at  the  grocery  store 
asked  me  how  I  hurt  myself.  I  said  I  didn't  hurt 
myself,  my  husband  did  it.  Then  that  young 
girl,  as  thin  as  a  rail  and  as  meek-looking  as  a 
swallow,  said  :  '  You  tell  me  the  next  time  he  hits 
you.' 

"  It  wasn't  long  before  he  beat  me  again,  and 
I  told  her  and  the  police  came  and  took  him  by 


OUR  CRITICS  85 

the  neck  and  put  him  in  the  lock-up,  and  it  cost 
me  twenty-five  dollars  to  get  him  out.  I  earned 
that  money  myself  and  it  was  no  punishment  to 
him.  I  told  the  young  woman  about  it,  and  she 
said  :  '  The  next  time  he  hits  you,  you  hit  back.' 
I  said  ;  '  Is  it  allowed  ? '  She  laughed,  and  said  : 
'  If  he  hits  you  first  and  you  kill  him,  nothing 
will  happen  to  you.'  It  wasn't  long  until  he 
came  home  drunk  and  beat  me  again  and  I  gave 
him  one  with  the  rolling-pin  and  he  fell,  and  as 
he  was  lying  there  I  got  so  angry  I  gave  him 
another  and  another,  and  after  that  he  knew 
better  than  to  beat  me." 

This  Slavic  Deborah  told  her  story  graphically 
and  dramatically,  and,  undoubtedly,  her  husband 
was  not  the  first  immigrant  to  learn  that  mar- 
riage on  the  European  plan  is  one  thing,  and  on 
the  American  plan,  quite  another  matter. 

"Yes,"  said  the  young  Moravian  woman. 
"  When  I  get  married,  I'll  get  an  American  hus- 
band. They  don't  expect  a  dowry,  and  they 
don't  make  you  work  like  a  slave." 

"In  a  year  he'll  get  divorced,"  the  young 
Hungarian  Jew  broke  in.  "  They  do  that  quickly." 

"  And  what  of  it  ?  "  she  retorted.  "  I'll  be  still 
better  off.  He'll  have  to  pay  me." 

I  do  not  know  exactly  at  what  point  of  the 
conversation  I  began  to  sing  the  praises  of  the 
American  man ;  his  loyalty  and  his  sense  of 
justice — if  there  is  one  thing  that  I  enjoy  more 


86  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

than  singing  the  praise  of  the  American  woman 
it  is  lauding  the  American  man. 

Hardly  had  I  begun  to  speak,  when  a  young 
Roumanian,  whom  I  had  not  previously  noticed, 
commenced  to  rail  at  me,  telling  me  in  a  mixture 
of  three  languages  to  keep  my  mouth  shut ;  for 
he  knew  better.  From  the  time  he  landed  in 
New  York  until  he  left  the  country,  he  had  not 
met  a  man  who  did  not  take  advantage  of  him 
or  ill-treat  him.  In  Chicago,  he  was  lured  from 
the  Union  Station  to  a  saloon  on  Canal  Street^ 
and,  when  he  came  to  himself,  he  was  lying  in 
an  alley,  penniless.  He  found  his  way  to  Mon- 
tana, where  he  herded  sheep.  There  he  tasted 
something  of  loneliness  and  homesickness,  see- 
ing nothing  for  weeks  but  red  hills  and  blue  sky 
— not  a  living  thing  except  his  sheep,  or  wolves 
to  drive  away.  Then  one  day  came  American 
men  on  ponies  and  killed  every  one  of  his  sheep, 
hundreds  and  hundreds  of  them,  knocked  him 
down  and  threatened  to  riddle  him  with  bullets 
if  he  did  not  turn  his  face  towards  the  East  and 
march  on  without  looking  back.  Days  and  days 
he  walked,  and  because  his  face  was  of  a  darker 
hue  than  others,  and  his  clothes  looked  strange, 
"  No  man  gave  unto  him."  He  then  worked  ii; 
the  mines  of  Colorado.  "The  men  there,"  he 
said,  "  shoot,  drink,  and  gamble,  and  have  about 
as  much  regard  for  human  life  as  for  the  life  of 
sheep,  and  as  soon  as  I  had  money  enough  I 


OUR  CRITICS  87 

made  ready  to  go  home."  No  more  America 
for  him,  and  no  praise  for  its  men. 

"  That's  not  so,  Brother,"  came  a  voice  from 
the  farther  end  of  the  car,  and  I  turned  to  see 
this  valiant  champion  of  ours.  Had  I  been  asked 
to  give  the  place  of  his  nativity,  I  should  have 
put  it  in  that  Middle  West  of  ours,  which  takes 
from  her  children  all  surplus  flesh  and  puts  in  its 
place  bone  and  sinew.  His  complexion  was  sal- 
low, and  the  general  expression  of  his  face  be- 
tokened sensitiveness,  bordering  on  the  abnormal. 
"  I  have  been  in  America  twenty  years,  and  those 
years  in  Chicago,  and  I  have  met  many  good 
men.  The  good  men  don't  shoot  and  drink  and 
gamble." 

It  seemed  strange  language  to  my  travelling 
companions ;  but  to  me  it  sounded  familiar. 

After  the  Chicago  man  had  delivered  his  ex- 
ordium, I  had  no  difficulty  in  getting  his  story 
from  him,  and  then  I  knew  "  whence  this  man 
had  this  doctrine."  Emigrating  in  his  young 
manhood  to  Chicago,  he  had  come  in  touch  with 
Methodist  missionaries,  who  befriended  him  and 
saved  him  from  a  life  of  intemperance  and  infi- 
delity. Unfortunately,  his  awakened,  religion- 
hungry  soul  became  confused  by  the  shibboleths 
of  contending  sects ;  he  travelled  and  travailed 
all  the  way,  from  striving  after  a  "  Second  Bless- 
ing," to  "Soul  Sleepers,"  "Seventh  Day  Ad- 
ventists,"  and  Dowie's  religious  movement,  which 


88  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

at  times  looked  like  Opera  Bouffe,  but  which 
ended  in  a  great  tragedy.  I  did  not  discover 
what  form  of  faith  was  now  holding  the  alle- 
giance of  his  spirit ;  but  as  he  told  me  that  it  was 
neither  a  church  nor  a  sect,  I  surmised  that  he 
belonged  to  some  church  or  sect  whose  chief 
doctrine  is  that  it  is  neither. 

Evidently  the  Spirit  was  upon  him,  some  spirit 
at  least ;  for  he  told  me  that  he  had  been  sent  to 
Hungary  to  convert  his  brethren.  Knowing  how 
much  the  region  from  which  he  came  needed  some 
moral  and  religious  quickening,  I  timidly  offered 
him  my  hand  and  my  good  wishes ;  but  he  de- 
clined both.  He  "  must  not  lean  on  the  arm  of 
flesh  ;  so  the  Bible  says."  The  odour  of  tobacco 
offended  his  sensitive  nostrils,  and,  turning  to 
the  butter  and  egg  man,  who  was  the  chief  of- 
fender, he  pointed  to  his  pipe,  saying :  "  Throw 
that  devilish  thing  away ! "  But  a  Slav  and  his 
pipe  are  not  so  soon  parted,  and  the  butter  and 
egg  man  held  firmly  to  his ;  although  he  smiled, 
not  wishing  to  offend  this  prophet  in  Israel. 
Then  the  luckless  man  pulled  his  whiskey  bottle 
out  of  his  pocket  and  offered  it  to  the  ex-Dowieite, 
who  took  it,  lifted  it  high  in  air,  and  made  an 
eloquent  temperance  address,  after  which  he 
threw  the  bottle  out  the  window. 

If,  as  a  drowning  man,  he  had  refused  a  life- 
preserver,  or  had  thrown  diamonds  into  the  sea, 
his  Slavic  brothers  would  not  have  thought  him 


OUR  CRITICS  89 

more  reckless  or  insane.  Palenka,  as  they  call 
it,  gives  strength.  Black  bread  and  palenka 
have  kept  the  hard-working  Slav  alive,  have 
given  him  courage  and  cheer,  and  this  crazy 
man  had  thrown  the  precious  stuff  away ! 

Yet  he  was  so  righteously  indignant,  so 
wrought  up  over  his  heroic  task,  that  the  peas- 
ants who  had  risen  to  remonstrate  with  him  or 
to  attack  him,  sank  back  into  their  seats ;  while 
over  them  all  came  a  solemn  silence,  broken  only 
by  the  grinding  and  jolting  of  the  flat  car-wheels. 

This  was  the  psychological  moment  for  the 
prophet  to  declare  his  mission  and  preach  to  us 
all,  and  he  did.  It  was  a  fervent  message;  one 
in  which  much  truth  and  falsehood  mingled,  and 
if  Dowie's  spirit  hovered  near,  his  satisfaction  at 
hearing  one  of  his  disciples  speak  of  the  things 
for  which  he  fought  and  on  which  he  throve, 
would  have  been  marred  only  by  the  fact  that^ 
for  once  at  least,  "  Elijah  the  Second  "  was  out- 
done. All  the  Dowie  vernacular,  translated  into 
the  realistic  Slavic,  was  let  loose  by  this  apostle. 
Now  it  was  the  voice  of  some  Old  Testament 
prophet  which  spoke ;  and  again  it  was  as  if  a 
John  pleaded  for  love's  sake.  Then  came  a 
jumble  of  words  and  bitter  invective,  which,  by 
comparison,  caused  the  imprecatory  Psalms  to 
seem  like  the  thirteenth  chapter  of  First  Cor- 
inthians. 

No  sooner  had  the  preacher  resumed  his  seat 


90  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

than  the  spell  he  had  woven  about  his  auditors 
was  broken.  The  butter  and  egg  man  rose, 
and  demanded  to  be  reimbursed  for  his  wasted 
palenka,  concluding  his  remarks  by  asserting 
that  in  America  good  people  do  drink  whiskey, 
that  everybody  drinks,  and  that  "  they  make  you 
drink  whether  you  want  to  or  not." 

"  Tak  ye,"  so  it  is,  said  a  young  man,  who,  as 
far  as  his  clothing  was  concerned,  might  have 
just  stepped  out  of  an  American  Jockey  Club. 
His  voice  was  guttural  and  every  sentence  was 
punctuated  by  oaths. 

"  My  father  keeps  a  saloon  in  Hazleton,  and 
the  policemen  and  aldermen  come  there  and 
drink,  and  at  election  time  the  burgess  comes 
and  '  sets  'em  up '  for  everybody." 

While  he  spoke,  he  jingled  the  money  in  his 
pockets  and  kept  his  audience  much  interested 
by  telling  about  his  betting  on  horse-races,  the 
intricacies  of  the  game  of  poker,  how  much 
money  his  father  made  on  liquor  and  what  a 
high  and  mighty  position  was  that  of  a  saloon- 
keeper in  Hazleton.  He  was  going  to  Galicia 
to  visit  his  grandparents,  and  he  meant  to  show 
the  slow  town  of  Przemysl  what  it  means  to 
have  a  "  hot  time." 

At  Hodonin,  in  Moravia,  I  had  to  leave  the 
train ;  so  I  bade  good-bye  to  the  interesting 
company. 

The  woman  from  McKeesport  said,  as  we 


OUR  CRITICS  91 

shook  hands,  "  America  all  right,  and  you  bet 
I'm  going  back  just  as  soon  as  I  have  seen  to 
my  property." 

With  a  contemptuous  glance  at  the  young 
Jew,  the  Moravian  girl  said :  "  Right  she  is  1 
There's  nothing  the  matter  with  America,  and 
when  I  go  back,  I  bet  you  I'll  get  an  American 
husband  1 " 

"  Oh,  yes  1  Of  course.  They  are  lying  on 
the  shelf  waiting  for  you  1 "  sneered  the  object 
of  her  contempt. 

The  sport  tried  to  be  kind  in  his  good-bye 
words ;  but  he  used  so  many  oaths  that  he  be- 
came repulsive.  When  I  remonstrated,  he  said  : 

"In  America,  everybody  swear — no  make 
trouble  to  say :  good-morning  your — Highness. 
See  a  man — slap  him  on  shoulder  and  say: 
Hello — John — you — how  dy  ?  So  long,  then, 
you— old  man,  good-bye." 

The  butter  and  egg  man  gripped  my  hand 
mightily,  and  as  a  parting  word  gave  me  this  in- 
junction. "  Don't  let  your  old  woman  boss 
you  ; "  then,  glancing  at  our  prophet,  he  added : 
"  He  little  not  all  right." 

The  Roumanian  shepherd  looked  out  the  win- 
dow and  made  no  effort  to  take  my  proffered 
hand.  His  sallow  face  was  drawn  by  pain,  caused 
by  something  I  dimly  divined. 

We  were  at  the  station,  a  station  famous  for  a 
certain  kind  of  sausage,  whose  odorous  steam 


92  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

soon  filled  our  nostrils.  Taking  several  portions 
from  the  tray  which  a  waiter  held  towards  me,  I 
gave  them  to  the  Roumanian  peasant.  Like  a 
wild  beast  he  fell  upon  the  food,  while  into  his 
pain-drawn  face  came  a  ray  of  human  joy. 

The  prophet  had  difficulty  in  making  up  his 
mind  about  me.  Reluctantly  he  stretched  out 
his  hand  as  I  was  leaving  the  car.  When  I 
grasped  it,  he  querulously  asked :  "  Have  you 
received  the  Blessing  ?  "  and  with  great  assurance 
I  answered :  "  You  bet" 


VI 

THE  DOCTOR  OF  THE  KOPANICZE 

THE  last  people  to  feel  the  sweep  of  the 
tide  which  carried  them  to  the  United 
States  and  back  again  were  the  moun- 
tain folk  in  Eastern  Europe. 

The  Slav  is  naturally  a  plainsman,  and  even  in 
the  lowlands,  where  he  could  not  very  well  escape 
the  force  of  world  currents,  he  resisted  them  as 
long  as  possible,  content  to  follow  his  plough  for 
a  meagre  wage. 

When  at  last  the  lure  of  the  gold  grew  too 
strong  for  him  to  withstand  its  seductive  beckon- 
ing, he  went  first  from  the  great  highways  along 
the  main  branches  of  railroads,  and  from  villages 
on  the  shores  of  rivers  ;  until  the  ever-rising  tide, 
with  all  its  volume  and  all  its  good  or  ill,  reached 
the  mountains. 

Where  in  straggling  villages  in  the  Carpathians 
the  little  mud-huts  are  detached,  and  scattered  on 
top  of  the  foothills  in  the  midst  of  their  stony 
fields,  these  form  a  Kopanicze ;  the  individual 
hut  is  called  a  Kopanicza,  and  the  inhabitants  are 
called  Kopaniczari. 

They  are  the  poor  mountain  folk,  isolated  from 
church  and  school,  far  from  the  highways  of 

93 


94  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

travel,  and  are  among  the  most  backward,  most 
primitive,  and  most  neglected  of  the  Slovak  peo- 
ple. Their  isolation  has  often  bred  not  only  ig- 
norance but  sometimes  lawlessness,  and,  even 
now,  he  who  has  no  pressing  business  there, 
avoids  these  settlements. 

Meeting  a  Kopaniczar  on  a  lonely  highway 
gives  one  a  queer,  creepy  sensation.  He  is  a 
raw-boned,  clumsy  creature,  his  body  wrapped  in 
a  sheepskin  coat,  his  head  covered  by  a  broad, 
felt  hat,  soaked  in  grease,  his  feet  encased  in 
woolen  boots  ;  all  his  garments  of  the  most  primi- 
tive home  manufacture.  He  looks  more  ferocious 
than  he  is ;  for  unless  heavily  under  the  influence 
of  alcohol,  which  does  not  easily  affect  him,  he 
is  a  good-natured  human  being.  His  supersti- 
tion and  his  ignorance,  however,  coupled  with  his 
intemperance,  make  him  often  dangerous,  as  is 
seen  by  the  following  incident  which  took  place 
last  year. 

A  great  many  fires  of  incendiary  origin  oc- 
curred in  one  of  the  settlements,  and  as  no  satis- 
factory clue  to  the  perpetrator  was  found,  they 
were  supposed  to  be  the  work  of  evil  spirits. 
Fire  in  one  of  these  settlements  is  especially  dis- 
astrous ;  for  as  the  huts  are  built  of  exceedingly 
inflammable  material,  everything  is  consumed. 
Such  a  house  usually  includes  in  its  primitive 
possessions  a  horse  or  a  cow,  and  when  these  are 
destroyed,  it  spells  utter  ruin. 


The  DOCTOR  of  TJie  KOPANICZE      95 

One  day  a  tourist  came  into  this  Kopanicze, 
the  first  of  his  kind  who  had  ever  ventured  into 
that  isolated  region.  Being  a  tourist,  he  natu- 
rally carried  a  camera,  and  as  he  levelled  it  upon 
the  buildings,  the  peasants,  conceiving  the  insane 
idea  that  he  was  marking  their  huts  for  destruc- 
tion, ran  out  and  beat  him  to  death. 

A  boyhood  friend  of  mine  was  appointed  dis- 
trict physician  in  the  upper  Trenczin  district,  the 
most  poverty  stricken  in  Hungaiy,  largely  pop- 
ulated by  these  Kopaniczari.  He  was  a  Jew 
without  powerful  protection,  and  one  way  of  get- 
ting rid  of  surplus  Jewish  physicians  was  to  put 
them  in  charge  of  one  of  these  regions,  in  which 
they  were  sure  to  be  out  of  the  way  of  some  Gen- 
tile aspirant  for  a  large  and  lucrative  medical 
practice. 

My  friend  had  travelled  the  usual  long  and 
thorny  road  which  a  poor  boy  has  to  travel  in 
striving  after  a  university  education.  His  parents, 
who  were  poor,  laboured  and  begged  and  bor- 
rowed; while  he  tutored  and  borrowed  and 
begged  ;  yet  he  found  himself  still  within  two 
years  of  a  diploma  when  his  parents  died. 

Then  he  did  the  not  uncommon  thing ;  con- 
sulted a  marriage  broker,  who  found  a  marriage- 
able maiden  with  a  dowry,  and  parents  willing 
to  advance  a  portion  of  it ;  so  that  the  young 
man  could  finish  his  education  before  he  led  the 
daughter  to  the  altar. 


96  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

In  Hungary,  a  doctor's  diploma  is  a  splendid 
asset  in  the  marriage  business,  and  had  my  friend 
been  able  to  wait  until  he  really  had  his,  he  could 
have  commanded  twice  as  much  dowry  and  a 
handsomer  maiden.  Being  poor,  he  shared  the 
lot  of  all  those  unfortunates  who  have  to  make 
purchases  on  the  instalment  plan,  be  they  plush 
albums,  life  insurance,  or  wives. 

In  spite  of  the  materialistic  way  in  which  my 
doctor  went  about  getting  a  bride,  he  was  an 
idealist ;  and,  consequently,  doomed  to  have  a 
hard  time  in  this  exceedingly  practical  world. 
When  after  his  marriage  he  was  sent  to  the 
Trenczin  district,  he  found  that  the  Kopanicze 
had  as  much  use  for  a  doctor  as  it  had  for  a  pro- 
fessor of  psychology.  Not  that  the  people  were 
never  ill ;  on  the  contrary,  infants  born  in  the 
wretched  huts,  unless  remarkably  well  prepared 
for  the  stifling  air  they  had  to  breathe,  for  the 
hard  rye  bread  soaked  in  alcohol,  which  often 
they  had  to  eat,  and  for  the  poppy  seed  concoc- 
tion which  they  were  given  to  keep  them  quiet 
while  their  mothers  were  working  in  the  fields 
— such  infants,  and  there  were  many — went 
back  into  the  unknown  soon  after  they  came  out 
of  it. 

If  they  lingered,  if  any  one  lingered,  before 
death  overtook  him,  the  witch  was  the  first  aid 
brought  into  requisition.  To  cure  infantile  con- 
vulsions, she  would  lay  the  baby  on  the  thresh 


The  DOCTOR  of  The  KOPANICZE      97 

old  and  cause  a  female  dog  to  jump  over  it  three 
times.  A  specific  against  typhoid  fever  was  a 
vile  compound  made  of  the  heart  of  a  black  cat, 
juniper  berries,  and  alcohol ;  while  if  a  child  had 
eaten  poisoned  mushrooms,  it  was  hit  over  the 
head  until  it  either  died  or  recovered. 

Strange  to  say,  and  yet  not  strange,  a  fair  pro- 
portion of  robust  infants,  as  well  as  hardened 
adults,  survived  such  treatment,  and  even  to  this 
day  there  is  a  witch  not  far  from  the  city  of  Vag 
Ujhely,  who  has  some  degree  of  national  fame 
for  her  healing  art. 

If  the  witch  failed  to  cure,  the  priest  was  sent 
for  and  the  proper  saints  invoked  for  the  healing. 
If  the  priest's  prayers  failed  to  help — "  What's  the 
use  of  sending  for  the  doctor  ?  "  The  undertaker 
was  notified,  and  the  grave-digger  did  the  rest. 

Unselfishly  my  friend  tried  to  save  these 
people.  He  preached  the  gospel  of  fresh  air, 
and  in  passing  through  one  of  the  settlements 
with  him,  some  five  years  ago,  I  saw  him  break 
window  after  window  (they  were  not  made  to 
open)  that  fresh  air  might  at  least  once  enter  the 
wretched  living-rooms.  The  result  was  a  riot, 
and  that  night  all  his  windows  were  broken  ;  so 
that  for  once  he  had  more  air  than  he  desired. 

There  was  consumption  in  one  settlement,  and 
he  provided  sanitary  cuspidors,  proscribed  by 
law  ;  but  he  saw  them  used  for  culinary  purposes 
instead  1 


98  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

Vainly,  he  lifted  his  voice  against  the  use  of 
alcohol ;  he  had  the  innkeepers  and  the  State 
against  him.  The  State  prefers  to  see  its  people 
rot  from  poison  rather  than  lose  its  revenue. 

In  spite  of  all  he  did,  he  was  regarded  as  the 
enemy  of  the  community  and  not  its  friend  ;  so 
having  meddled  much  in  business  which  was  not 
his,  he  could  not  expect  a  promotion,  and  none 
came. 

Five  years  ago  he  had  accepted  poverty,  neg- 
lect, and  the  enmity  of  his  neighbours  as  his  lot 
in  life.  He  had  sunk  into  such  a  hopeless  atti- 
tude that  neither  in  dress  nor  in  habits  of  living 
could  one  easily  distinguish  him  from  his  igno- 
rant neighbours.  His  wife  was  more  disappointed 
than  he  was.  Had  she  bestowed  upon  him  such 
a  dowry  to  live  in  the  Kopanicze  ?  She  had  ex- 
pected to  be  the  "  Highborn  Mrs.  Dr.  M " 

and  taste  something  of  the  forbidden  fruits  of 
Gentile  society.  Ordinarily,  the  physician  breaks 
through  the  cast  of  race  and  faith  ;  but  here  she 
was,  despised  even  by  the  Kopaniczari,  the  low- 
liest of  the  lowly. 

I  left  the  doctor  after  that  last  visit,  vowing 
never  to  see  him  again  ;  for  it  was  an  uncom- 
fortable experience,  if  not  a  painful  one. 

My  studies  last  year  carried  me  into  this  very 
region.  Since  I  had  left  it,  hundreds  of  men  and 
women  had  gone  to  America  and  a  large  num- 
ber had  returned  home.  Here,  indeed,  was  the 


The  DOCTOR  of  The  KOPANICZE      99 

proper  field  for  observation,  and  the  man  to  help 
me  most,  was  my  boyhood's  friend. 

With  difficulty  I  found  his  home ;  for  it  was 
new,  the  doctor's  wife  was  resplendent  in  fine 
clothing,  and  the  doctor's  office,  once  full  of  dust 
and  cobwebs,  contained  new  cases  with  new  sur- 
gical instruments,  and,  wonder  of  wonders  1  a 
dentist's  machine.  I  had  to  wait  for  the  return 
of  the  doctor,  who  was  visiting  a  patient,  and 
had  time  to  catch  my  breath  ;  for  having  come  a 
great  distance  by  wheel  and  then  finding  such  a 
surprise,  proved  quite  overwhelming. 

"  What  has  happened  here  ? "  I  asked  him 
when  he  returned. 

"  One  thing  at  a  time,"  he  replied.  "  First 
let's  have  some  refreshments  ; "  and  as  we  drank 
the  delicious  raspberry  soda  which  he  prepared, 
he  said :  "  If  I  wished  to  tell  you  in  one  word 
what  has  happened,  I  could  do  it  by  saying : 
Emigration. 

"  It  seemed  almost  a  miracle  to  see  the  first 
people  leaving  the  Kopanicze ;  for  neither  they 
nor  their  ancestors  had  moved  away  since  the 
great  persecution  in  the  sixteenth  century  brought 
them  here  from  Bohemia. 

"  The  letters  they  wrote,  and  which  I  had  to 
read  to  their  neighbours,  contained  such  glow- 
ing accounts  of  America  that  others  went,  until 
nobody  was  left  but  the  women,  the  children,  the 
aged,  the  witch,  and  ourselves.  We  were  at  the 


NURSED 


ioo  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

point  of  starvation  when  the  first  money  came 
from  America,  and  with  it  nearly  every  husband, 
who  sent  it,  wrote :  '  If  there  is  anything  the 
matter  with  the  children,  send  for  the  doctor.' 

"My  first  case  was  a  scarlet  fever  patient. 
The  child  recovered ;  but  the  contagion  had 
spread.  The  mother  whose  child  I  had  saved 
told  everybody  that  the  witch  with  her  machina- 
tions made  no  impression  upon  the  fever  ;  while 
the  medicine  helped.  I  was  called  to  other  cases. 
In  most  homes  I  am  sure  that  after  I  left  the 
witch  was  called  also ;  but  I  did  not  care  so  long 
as  the  children  were  given  my  medicine. 

"  Soon  I  was  called  to  other  villages,  and  as 
the  money  kept  coming  from  America,  and  the 
peasants  gained  confidence  in  me,  my  services 
were  greatly  in  demand. 

"Our  old  house,  which  nearly  caved  in  over 
our  heads,  was  replaced  by  this  one.  I  still  owe 
money  on  it,  but  I  am  sure  I  can  pay  the  rest  in 
a  year." 

"  What  use  do  you  make  of  this  ? "  I  asked, 
pointing  to  the  well-known  object  found  in  every 
dentist's  office  in  America. 

"  Since  the  men  have  come  back,"  he  replied, 
"  filled  teeth  have  become  as  fashionable  as  red 
waistcoats  used  to  be,  and  I  have  had  to  learn 
dentistry.  And  there  is  more  money  in  filling 
teeth,"  he  added  with  a  shrewd  smile,  "  than  in 
giving  pills. 


The  DOCTOR  of  The  KOPANICZE    101 

"  What  do  I  think  of  the  effect  of  emigration 
on-  the  Kopanicze  ?  It  has  driven  out  the  witch, 
it  has  awakened  a  community  which  had  slept 
for  many  centuries,  it  has  done  for  these  people 
in  the  twentieth  century  what  the  Reformation 
did  in  the  sixteenth.  And  as  for  us,  it  has  saved 
us  from  starvation." 

As  I  was  about  to  go,  I  heard  a  peasant  girl 
in  the  hall  say :  "I  kiss  your  hand,  Most  High- 
born Mrs.  Dr.  M .  Is  the  Most  Mighty  and 

Honourable  Mr.  Dr.  M at  home?"  And 

the  "  Most  Highborn  Mrs.  Dr.  M "  answered 

triumphantly,  that  the  Most  Mighty  and  Hon- 
ourable Mr.  Dr.  M was  at  home,  but  busy. 

A  gentleman  from  America  had  come  to  consult 
him  about  his  health  ;  and  I  am  sure  that  at  that 

moment  the  "  Most  Highborn  Mrs.  Dr.  M " 

felt  that  her  dowry  had  been  well  invested  and 
that  it  was  coming  back  with  interest,  through 
emigration  to  America. 


VII 

«  MOSCHELE  AMERIKANSKY  " 

THE  Hungarian  town  inhabited  by  Mag- 
yars, does  not  materially  differ  from  the 
villages  in  which  so  many  varieties  and 
subjects  of  other  races  live.  Such  a  town  is 
merely  a  larger  village,  and,  instead  of  one 
broad  street  flanked  by  straw  thatched  huts, 
there  are  at  least  four  streets  which  terminate 
on  the  "square,"  around  which  the  dignitaries 
have  built  their  more  pretentious  dwellings. 
Here  also  are  the  stores,  usually  kept  by  Jews, 
who  are  not  indifferent  to  the  economic  move- 
ments of  the  people  whose  purveyors  they  are. 

Twenty  years  ago,  before  emigration  from  the 
district  of  Nyitra  had  begun,  the  principal  town 
in  that  district  boasted  but  half  a  dozen  stores  so 
called,  the  largest  and  best  of  which  could  be 
discovered  only  by  its  tiny  show-window,  where, 
crowded  in  dire  confusion,  were  a  few  articles  of 
general  merchandise.  During  all  the  years  of 
my  comings  and  goings  I  could  never  see  any 
change  in  the  articles  displayed,  nor  even  by  a 
wild  flight  of  imagination  see  any  indication  that 
a  duster  had  lost  its  way  among  them. 

It  is  not,  however,  of  this  store  that  I  wish  to 
102 


"  MOSCHELE  AMERIKANSKY  "      103 

tell,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  it  now  has  a  double 
show-window,  and  contains,  among  many  other 
new  things,  a  genuine  American  cash  register. 

The  "  Amerikansky  Schtore "  was  once  the 
meanest  and  smallest  among  all  the  stores  of 
that  village.  No  front  door  led  into  it,  no  show- 
window  betrayed  its  existence,  and  certainly  no 
sign-board  gave  a  hint  of  what  could  be  pur- 
chased within.  It  was  then  owned  by  "  Uncle 
Isaac,"  as  every  one  called  him.  He  made  a 
living  out  of  the  store ;  but  his  life  came  out  of 
the  Talmud,  and  of  course  both  were  scanty. 

Uncle  Isaac's  father,  Reb  Ephraim,  studied 
the  Talmud,  and  his  sainted  grandfather,  Reb 
Isaac,  after  whom  he  was  named,  left  such  a  holy 
savour  behind  him  that  to  this  day  his  name  is 
reverently  uttered  in  prayer,  as  one  who  is  surely 
near  to  God  and  can  intercede  for  the  children  of 
this  generation  who  study  less  Talmud  and  do 
more  business. 

Uncle  Isaac's  forefathers,  "  God  knows  how  far 
back,"  kept  this  same  store  in  the  same  way ;  for 
like  the  ring  in  Lessing's  fable  it  was  to  be  left  to 
the  son  who  knew  most  about  the  Talmud,  and, 
as  a  consequence,  least  about  the  business.  The 
Talmud  had  to  be  studied,  the  store  ran  itself. 
Not  that  there  was  anything  automatic  about 
it  in  those  days ;  but  Uncle  Isaac,  true  to  the 
traditions  of  his  forefathers,  sold  only  those  things 
which  his  forefathers  had  sold  before  him,  namely ; 


io4  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

red  earthen  pots  and  big  green  bowls  which  he 
bought  from  the  same  family  in  the  same  town 
where  the  same  peasant  potteries  flourished, 
from  which  his  forefathers  had  bought  their  sup- 
plies of  these  same  red  pots  and  green  bowls. 

If  a  customer  came  to  the  store  while  the  chil- 
dren were  little  and  his  wife  was  busy  caring  for 
them  (for  Uncle  Isaac  was  blessed  according  to 
the  promise  made  to  Abraham)  he  had  to  wait 
until  Uncle  Isaac  disentangled  himself  from  the 
mazes  of  the  Talmud.  Then  almost  reluctantly 
he  sold  the  pot  or  bowl,  scarcely  ever  exchanging 
a  word  with  his  customer,  who  was  usually  a 
peasant,  and  of  course  a  Gentile  whose  presence 
disturbed  the  pious  atmosphere  into  which  Uncle 
Isaac  had  wrapped  himself. 

If  any  of  the  townspeople  came,  he  was  more 
friendly  ;  he  had  to  be,  and  as  was  often  the  case 
in  later  days  if  they  asked  why  he  didn't  sell  cups 
and  saucers  and  wash-bowls,  he  would  invariably 
shrug  his  shoulders  as  his  blessed  forefathers  had 
shrugged  their  shoulders  before  him.  This  shrug 
was  eloquent,  and  meant  many  things ;  but, 
above  all,  it  meant :  "  Have  I  not  bother  enough 
to  remember  what  Rasche's  (a  celebrated  Jewish 
commentator)  comment  upon  Rambam's  (the  ab- 
breviation of  another  commentator's  name)  com- 
ment was  ?  How  can  you  expect  me  to  give  my 
time  to  such  things  as  buying  and  selling  wash- 
bowls and  cups  and  saucers?" 


"MOSCHELE  AMERIKANSKY"      105 

His  children,  three  boys  and  three  girls,  were 
nurtured  in  this  atmosphere.  The  sons  began 
studying  the  Talmud  when  they  were  five  years 
of  age,  and  the  daughters  were  initiated  into  the 
mysteries  of  the  Kosher  household  before  that  age. 

As  the  children  grew,  Uncle  Isaac  withdrew  al- 
most entirely  from  business  and  gave  himself 
more  and  more  to  the  study  of  the  holy  books. 
The  oldest  son,  named  after  the  sainted  grand- 
father, went  to  Pressburg  to  study  for  the  Rabbin- 
ate, living  from  the  charity  of  the  faithful,  by 
whom  the  support  of  a  pious  youth  is  considered 
a  great  privilege. 

The  next  son  married  into  a  rich  but  not  pious 
family  to  whom  his  sacred  learning  was  a  very 
welcome  asset.  This  left  the  business,  such  as  it 
was,  upon  the  shoulders  of  the  youngest  son, 
Moschele. 

Moschele  inherited  less  of  his  pious  forefathers' 
piety  and  much  more  of  some  remote  ancestor's 
business  talents,  and  one  day  he  came  home  from 
a  distant  market  bringing  with  him  a  dozen  cups 
and  saucers  and  a  wash-bowl  and  pitcher. 

Had  he  brought  home  idols  made  of  clay  he 
could  not  have  hurt  his  father  more,  and  the 
whole  town  soon  knew  that  Moschele — young 
Moschele  whose  eyes  had  already  rested  lovingly 
upon  the  blushing  faces  of  young  maidens — had 
received  a  beating  from  his  father,  who,  in  his 
fury,  had  broken  the  cups  and  saucers,  throwing 


io6  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

the  fragments  at  the  poor,  defenseless  head  of 
the  culprit  Uncle  Isaac's  temper  was  equalled 
only  by  his  piety,  and  the  old  man  was  beside 
himself. 

Moschele  was  in  the  same  mood,  and  decided 
to  leave  his  old  father  with  his  red  pots  and  green 
bowls  and  dry  Talmud.  I  visited  Uncle  Isaac's 
store  many  a  time  after  this  event.  It  was  less  a 
store  than  ever.  The  house  itself  was  sinking 
into  the  surrounding  mire,  the  thatched  roof  was 
falling  in  on  one  side  and  sliding  off  on  the  other. 

"  Where  is  Moschele  ?  "  I  asked  him  on  one  of 
these  visits.  He  lifted  his  weary  head  from  the 
Talmud,  and  extricated  from  a  pile  of  ancient 
manuscripts  an  envelope  printed  all  over  with 
English  letters,  which  announced  the  business 
of  Jake  Greenbaum  who  kept  the  "  finest  General 
Department  Store  on  Avenue  B."  in  New  York. 
The  letter  in  the  envelope  told  of  Moschele's  em- 
ployment in  the  great  city,  and  of  his  life  there. 

"  Moschele,  my  Moschele,  is  in  America ! " 
And  the  tears  began  to  gather  in  the  old  man's 
eyes  as  he  spoke. 

"Who  knows  whether  he  eats  Kosher,  and 
whether  he  wears  the  sacred  fringes  upon  his 
breast?  How  I  wish  I  could  see  him  before  I 
go  hence ! " 

I  promised  to  visit  Moschele  upon  my  return 
to  America,  and  the  old  man's  face  beamed. 

"Would  you   mind  finding  out  whether   he 


"  MOSCHELE  AMERIKANSKY  "      107 

eats  Kosher,  and  whether  he  wears  the  sacred 
fringes  ?  " 

I  promised  even  that;  but  I  did  not  find 
Moschele  on  Avenue  B.  He  was  up  town,  on 
the  West  Side,  in  one  of  the  larger  department 
stores,  where  he  had  entire  charge  of  the 
crockery  department.  When  I  told  him  that  I 
had  seen  his  father,  he  plied  me  with  questions. 
I  told  him  the  condition  of  affairs  and  urged  him 
to  return  home  to  save  his  parents  from  utter 
poverty.  He  promised  to  go  if  his  father  would 
attend  to  the  Talmud  and  let  him  attend  to  the 
business.  I  did  not  ask  him  if  he  wore  the 
fringes  and  ate  Kosher,  I  did  not  need  to ;  for 
we  lunched  together  and  ham  sandwich  was  the 
"  piece  de  resistance." 

Some  eight  years  later,  my  journey  took  me 
once  more  through  Uncle  Isaac's  town.  The 
rapid  changes  taking  place  in  America  seemed 
as  nothing  compared  with  those  which  I  saw  in 
this  little  spot  in  the  Carpathians.  There  was 
actually  a  sidewalk,  a  cement  sidewalk,  the 
cement  furnished  by  Moschele. 

The  old  wooden  pump  upon  which  genera- 
tions had  expended  their  surplus  strength  and 
patience  to  coax  up  the  water,  had  given  place 
to  an  air  pressure  pump,  sold  to  the  town  by 
Moschele. 

In  the  old  days,  three  coal-oil  lamps  furnished 
light  for  the  miry  street  (when  there  was  no 


io8  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

moon),  and  now  the  town  had  an  artificial  gas 
plant,  placed  there  and  partly  owned  by  Moschele. 
Even  as  in  Florence,  this  or  that  or  the  other  is 
by  Michael  Angelo  ;  so  in  this  far-away  town, 
generations  to  come  will  remember  that  Moschele 
ushered  in  a  new  era,  if  not  of  art,  at  least  of 
civilization. 

It  was  well  worth  a  trip  across  the  ocean  to 
have  looked  upon  Moschele  and  Moschele's 
store.  First  of  all  was  the  sign  in  big  letters, 
"  Amerikansky  Schtore"  ;  then  the  outer  wall  of 
a  new  building,  covered  by  huge  illustrations  of 
the  various  things  sold  therein — a  method  of 
advertising  made  necessary  because  many  of  the 
peasants  cannot  read. 

The  store  itself  was  full  of  all  sorts  of  crockery 
and  tin  and  graniteware,  such  as  had  never  been 
seen  there  before.  And  oh  !  the  wonder  of  it  i 
Moschele  had  already  sold  one  bath-tub,  and 
carried  four  patterns  in  stock.  "  I  have  not  seen 
such  faith,  no  not  in  Israel."  He  also  sold  build- 
ing materials,  and  the  yard  was  full  of  every- 
thing which  could  not  be  crowded  into  the  store. 
That  which  especially  marked  the  business  as 
American,  was  the  fact  that  one  price  was 
charged  to  all. 

Uncle  Isaac  had  withdrawn  from  the  world 
and  mourned  the  departure  of  the  good  old 
days.  I  found  him  sitting  in  a  well-lighted,  well- 
furnished  room,  clothed  in  finest  broadcloth ;  for 


"  MOSCHELE  AMERIKANSKY  "      109 

it  was  the  Sabbath.  Everything  around  him 
was  new  except  the  Talmud. 

Was  he  happy  ?     No,  indeed  ! 

"  Where  can  a  thing  like  this  lead  ?  Only  to 
destruction  1 

"  Who  ever  heard  of  such  a  thing  as  this  be- 
fore? Moschele  rests  neither  by  day  nor  by 
night;  he  prints  bills  and  scatters  them  as  if 
money  were  paper;  he  sleeps  with  an  open 
window  even  in  the  winter,  as  if  he  wanted  to 
heat  all  outdoors,  and  he  has  even  travelled  on 
the  Sabbath  ! " 

Then  the  old  man  broke  down,  hid  his  face  in 
the  Talmud,  and  wept.  I  think  I  comforted 
him ;  at  least  I  tried  to,  and  as  I  left  him  he 
breathed  a  prayer  for  his  venturesome  son  who 
had  deserted  the  Talmud,  and  the  red  pots  and 
green  bowls ;  who  certainly  was  no  longer  in 
peril  of  poverty,  but  in  peril  of  his  soul. 

One  more  year  passed  and  in  visiting  this 
town,  I  immediately  turned  my  steps  towards  the 
"  Amerikansky  Schtore."  I  found  its  doors 
closed,  and  from  within  came  sounds  of  bitter 
wailing  and  lamentation.  I  did  not  need  to  be 
told  that  the  death  angel  had  made  his  sorrow- 
bringing  visitation,  and  my  heart  grew  tender  as 
I  thought  of  the  dear  old  man  who  would  no 
more  bend  over  the  Talmud  and  mourn  the  de- 
parture of  the  good  old  times. 

A  Jewish  house  of  mourning  is  sadder  than 


no  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

can  be  described.  Its  atmosphere  chills  one  to 
the  bone,  such  an  air  of  resigned  hopelessness 
pervades  everything.  All  is  sackcloth  and  ashes ; 
no  sign  of  hope  is  visible  and  but  little  of  it  lies 
in  the  hearts  of  the  mourners. 

Entering  the  room,  where  the  family  sat  upon 
the  ground  lamenting  its  dead,  how  great  was 
my  amazement  to  find  that  Uncle  Isaac,  instead 
of  being  the  one  mourned  for,  was  the  centre  of 
the  group  of  mourners ;  while  the  one  missing 
was  Moschele,  the  pillar  of  the  household,  the 
founder  of  the  "  Amerikansky  Schtore." 

The  old  man  stretched  out  both  hands  to  me 
in  mute  welcome,  and  when  I  sat  down  beside 
him  he  told  me  the  sad  story  which  I  shall  try  to 
give  in  his  own  words. 

"  Moschele  is  dead  1  What  a  blow  1  What  a 
blow  !  I  expected  something  terrible  !  I  knew 
this  couldn't  go  on !  He  grew  bolder  and 
bolder,  and  richer  and  richer.  Have  you  seen 
the  new  store?  In  all  Hungary  there  is  noth- 
ing like  it.  He  was  a  genius  ;  even  his  ene- 
mies admit  that"  Then  the  old  man  fell  into 
silence. 

"  But  tell  me  how  he  died." 

"  He  went  out  from  among  us  in  the  morning, 
as  strong  and  straight  as  an  oak,  and  he  was 
brought  home  felled  to  the  ground  as  if  struck  by 
lightning.  God's  ways  are  mysterious  ;  but  oh, 
my  son,  my  strong,  noble  son  !  If  only  he  had 


"  MOSCHELE  AMERIKANSKY  "      1 1 1 

not  departed  from  the  ways  of  his  fathers  I  might 
still  have  him. 

"  He  went  to  the  railroad  ;  they  had  switched 
his  car  of  goods  where  he  could  not  get  it — he 
was  buying  goods  by  the  carload  ;  nothing  like 
this  has  ever  been  heard  of  before — and  he 
wanted  his  car  ;  so  he  helped  the  men  to  move 
it.  Moschele  wasn't  afraid  of  anything.  The 
men  pushed  and  Moschele  fell  over  a  switch  and 
the  car  went  over  him." 

Here  a  paroxysm  of  grief  silenced  the  old  man 
and  he  swayed  to  and  fro,  weeping  piteously. 

And  again  I  passed  through  the  town,  and  this 
time  I  went  to  the  God's  acre  with  Uncle  Isaac, 
to  visit  the  grave  of  his  son.  In  weird  confusion 
lay  the  gray  and  moss-grown  stones.  No  care  is 
bestowed  upon  the  graves  or  upon  the  memo- 
rials of  the  departed  ;  for  the  body  is  nothing,  the 
spirit  is  everything  and"  that  is  with  God. 

In  the  centre  of  the  cemetery  is  a  knoll,  and 
upon  its  crest  is  a  monument  such  as  cannot  be 
found  anywhere  in  Hungary.  It  is  in  the  shape 
of  a  sarcophagus,  is  hewn  out  of  Vermont  granite 
and  is  so  heavy  that  it  cost  over  500  kronen  to 
bring  it  from  the  station  and  put  it  in  place. 
How  much  the  stone  cost  no  one  knows  except 
Uncle  Isaac,  who  erected  it  for  his  son  Moschele, 
who  wanted  everything  he  had  to  come  from 
America — even  his  tombstone. 


VIII 
"NOCH  1ST  POLEN  NICHT  VERLOREN" 

IT  has  always  seemed  to  me  wise  to  carry  let- 
ters of  introduction,  especially  when  travel- 
ling to  the  East  of  Europe  ;  often,  too,  I 
have  found  it  still  wiser  to  forget  that  I  had  them, 
for  a  letter  of  introduction  sometimes  blocks  ave- 
nues of  investigation,  particularly  when  the  prob- 
lem in  question  involves  the  privileged  or  official 
classes. 

This  time  in  following  the  immigrant  tide,  I  car- 
ried one  letter  which  I  was  eager  to  deliver ;  it 
was  given  me  by  a  personal  friend  in  America 
and  was  to  be  presented  to  his  mother-in-law  in 
Poland.  Not  that  I  was  overanxious  to  meet 
his  mother-in-law,  but  because  Polish  women  of 
the  upper  class  are,  as  a  rule,  so  superior  to  the 
men,  so  ready  to  talk  and  talk  so  well,  that  I 
promised  myself  a  rather  fruitful  call.  I  did  not 
meet  the  mother-in-law  yet  I  was  not  disap- 
pointed. 

Cracow  looks  dingy  even  to  one  who,  like  my- 
self, is  able  to  illuminate  its  sombre  present  in  the 
light  of  its  important  if  not  glorious  past.  Com- 
ing, as  I  had  come,  by  way  of  industrial  German- 
Poland,  with  its  glistening  newness,  from  the 

112 


u    .SP 

5  1 


< 
§ 

73 

H 
M 

u: 


s 

H    2. 


"  NOCH  1st  POLEN  Nicht  VERLOREN  "  113 

policemen's  helmets  to  the  weather-vane  of  the 
new  Rathhaus ;  out  of  its  tense  atmosphere  of 
whirring  wheels  within  wheels ;  out  of  its  geo- 
metrically correct  parks  and  new  and  ever  grow- 
ing building  additions,  Cracow  looked  to  me  as 
if  it  had  fallen  off  this  revolving  planet  and  set- 
tled itself  "  Where  the  wicked  cease  from  troub- 
ling, and  the  weary  are  at  rest " — wherever  that 
may  be. 

The  only  thing  that  had  grown  since  last  I  saw 
the  city  was  its  hatred  of  the  Germans.  On  the 
doors  of  many  stores  on  the  Rinok  were  large 
placards,  which,  literally  translated,  read  :  "  The 
gentlemen  travellers  from  Germany,  who  wish  to 
come  in  here  to  do  business  with  us,  are  politely 
requested  to  stay  out." 

Everything  else  looked  the  same,  only  more 
dingy  ;  even  the  Austrian  officers  who  loaf  around 
Havelik's  restaurant  seemed  to  have  lost  some- 
thing of  their  newness ;  for  braid  and  buttons, 
two  of  the  component  elements  out  of  which  Aus- 
trian officers  are  made,  were  tarnished  and  worn. 

The  Jews'  quarter  seemed  more  hopeless  and 
wretched  than  ever.  On  the  Kazimir  were  the 
same  haggling  crowds  in  the  same  small  stores, 
and  the  same  shambling  Jews  in  black,  greasy 
cloaks.  In  front  of  the  Jesuit  church  stood  the 
same  twelve  apostles,  and  I  regret  to  say  that 
they  were  just  as  shabby-looking  as  their  unbap- 
tized  brethren. 


114  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

Cracow,  the  freest  portion  of  divided  Poland, 
is  certainly  as  wretched  looking  as  Warsaw, 
where  liberty  dare  not  lift  her  head,  and  it  cannot 
compare  with  any  of  the  cities  of  German-Poland 
where  the  Prussian  gendarme  is  trying,  at  the 
point  of  the  bayonet,  to  cram  German  speech 
down  the  unwilling  throats  of  Polish  children. 

Why,  I  asked  myself,  should  this  shabbiness, 
this  negligence,  this  "  run-down-at-the-heel  "  ap- 
pearance prevail  in  all  the  Slavic  cities  from  Bel- 
grade to  St.  Petersburg,  and  from  Cracow  to 
Irkutsk  ?  Why  should  this  be  so  of  every  place, 
except  where  the  German  has  stepped  in  with 
his  iron  heel  or  where  the  Magyar  or  the  Jew  is 
trying  to  make  of  the  Slav  what  he  is  not  and 
does  not  care  to  be  ? 

I  was  tempted  to  take  the  first  train  out  of  Cra- 
cow, so  painful  to  me  was  this  condition  of  af- 
fairs ;  for  I  admire  the  Slavs,  although  I  think  I 
know  their  weaknesses.  But  the  first  train  did 
not  go  until  midnight,  and  I  had  nearly  eight 
long  hours  on  my  hands.  Then  I  remembered 
my  letter  of  introduction.  I  found  it  with  my 
passport  and  letter  of  credit,  and  looked  at  it 
again,  to  assure  myself  that  it  was  right.  Yes,  it 
was  addressed  to  the  Countess  So  &  So,  and  all 
the  way  to  the  house,  I  pictured  to  myself  my 
friend's  mother-in-law.  She  would  be  rather 
rotund,  for  Slavic  women  incline  that  way,  es- 
pecially during  the  full  moon  of  life.  She  would 


"  NOCH  1st  POLEN  Nicht  VERLOREN  "  115 

have  gray  hair,  dark  complexion,  and  a  rather  pro- 
nounced down  on  the  upper  lip.  That  seems  to 
be  the  tendency  of  the  Polish  woman  as  she 
grows  older  ;  perhaps  because  of  her  great  vital- 
ity. 

Beneath  the  portal  of»a  so-called  palace,  which 
was  pervaded  by  an  incredibly  strong  smell  of 
whitewash,  I  presented  my  card  to  the  porter, 
who  looked  somewhat  contemptuously  at  the 
German  name  it  bore.  After  long  waiting  I  was 
guided  to  the  very  top  story  of  the  house, 
through  clouds  of  falling  mortar  and  showers  of 
broken  brick.  The  building  seemed  to  be  in  the 
possession  of  masons  and  plasterers,  and  the 
noise  they  were  making  was  as  confusing  as  the 
dirt  and  dust  their  destructive  hands  were  creating. 

Two  surprises  awaited  me.  The  first  was,  that 
in  spite  of  the  fact  that  the  roof  was  partly  torn 
off,  and  confusion  reigned  supreme,  that  top 
story  contained  some  of  the  most  lavishly  ap- 
pointed apartments  I  have  ever  seen.  Pictures, 
statuary,  and  bric-a-brac,  created  by  Polish 
genius,  costly  vases,  rare  flowers,  exquisite  rugs 
and  furniture ;  and  everything  in  perfect  taste. 
If  Cracow  without  seemed  dingy  and  dead,  here 
it  was  brilliant  and  alive.  Thus  had  I  pictured 
my  Slav  at  his  best — imaginative,  creative,  rev- 
elling in  the  beautiful,  lavish  of  colour,  yet 
creating  harmonies.  Everything  around  me 
seemed  to  breathe  out  life,  and  here  I  could  un- 


Ii6  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

derstand  the  "Noch  ist  Polen  nicht  Verloren," 
although  in  the  street  I  had  been  ready  to  sing 
a  requiem  for  the  nation. 

A  hundred  questions  passed  through  my 
brain ;  questions  which  I  would  ask  the  mother- 
in-law  when  she  appeared.  Then  came  my 
second  surprise.  As  I  sat  there  thrilled  by  con- 
tending emotions,  the  curtain  opposite  me  was 
thrown  back  gracefully  and  quickly,  not  at  all  as 
if  a  short,  stout  mother-in-law  were  behind  it — 
and  my  eyes  fell  upon  one  of  the  most  beautiful 
young  women  I  have  ever  seen.  This  again  was 
Poland  at  her  best,  if  not  Poland  typified.  Her 
eyes  were  burningly  eloquent,  yet  showed  a  hid- 
den pathos ;  her  features  looked  as  if  chiselled  by 
a  master's  hand,  yet,  in  the  background,  the 
crude  touch  was  faintly  visible.  The  welcome 
accorded  me  was  genuinely  cordial,  yet  tinged 
by  the  proper  reserve. 

"  How  is  it,"  I  asked,  after  some  conversation, 
"  that  you  don't  look  like  a  mother-in-law,  and 
that  you  speak  English  as  if  you  came  from 
Boston  ?  " 

"  Because,"  she  said,  with  the  sweetest  smile, 
"  I  am  as  yet  only  a  sister-in-law,  and  I  do  come 
from  Boston.  That  is,  I  lived  there  for  years 
after  my  parents  were  exiled  from  Poland.  I 
came  back  here  after  my  marriage." 

This,  then,  was  my  chance  to  ask  all  manner 
of  questions  about  the  Slavs  in  general  and  the 


11 NOCH  1st  POLEN  Nicht  VERLOREN  "  117 

Poles  in  particular,  and  have  them  answered  in 
the  light  of  a  rather  unique  experience. 

"Why  is  Cracow  a  dead  city?"  This  was 
certainly  a  perfectly  familiar  American  question, 
and  I  received  a  characteristic  answer. 

"It  is  dead  because  it  is  '  crying  over  spilt 
milk.'  Nobody  is  regarded  as  a  patriot  unless 
he  talks  about  our  past  glory  and  blames  some 
one  in  general  and  the  Germans  in  particular,  for 
the  loss  of  that  glory.  We  might  do  great  things 
if  we  would  just  do  them.  We  have  the  vision 
and  the  talent ;  but  we  wear  ourselves  out,  say- 
ing what  a  great  people  we  are  and  how  su- 
perior to  all  other  human  beings  ;  yet  we  accom- 
plish nothing.  Look  at  this  house  of  ours,  and 
you  see  Poland  in  miniature.  I  don't  know  just 
how  old  it  is,  my  husband  can  tell  you  ;  but  when 
it  was  built,  the  work  was  poorly  done,  and  every 
year  it  has  to  be  repaired  from  the  bottom  up. 
In  America,  it  would  have  been  torn  down  years 
ago,  and  a  new  house  built,  to  suit  the  needs  of 
the  times.  Instead  of  that,  my  husband  is  spend- 
ing a  fortune  trying  to  make  it  a  fit  place  to  live 
in,  and  he  never  succeeds. 

"  Yet  that  is  the  thing  he  enjoys.  He  can 
scold  the  workmen  half  the  year  for  dragging 
their  task  along,  and  the  other  half  year  he 
scolds  them  for  having  done  their  work  so 
poorly." 

"  You  Americans  enjoy  being  comfortable,  we 


Ii8  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

Poles  enjoy  being  miserable.  If  the  Polish  men 
had  half  the  energy  of  the  American  men,  we 
would  indeed  be  a  great  people,  and  Cracow 
would  be  a  city  worthy  of  our  pride  in  it." 

I  am  not  sure  that  I  am  recording  the  Countess' 
exact  words,  for  to  see  her  talk  was  such  an  aes- 
thetic pleasure,  that  I  must  have  forgotten  much 
of  what  she  said ;  but  I  give  the  substance  of  her 
words. 

"See  what  America  is  doing  for  our  peas- 
ants ! "  she  continued. 

"  They  go  there  lazy  and  shiftless,  they  come 
back  thrifty  and  industrious,  and  are  rapidly  tak- 
ing the  places  of  our  decayed  nobility.  When 
they  come  back,  they  have  what  we  Slavs  have 
always  lacked — initiative.  I  wish  we  could  ex- 
port to  you  all  our  stock  of  Counts." 

I  suggested  that  she  might  try  it  as  a  business 
venture  ;  for  they  would  bring  a  good  price  in 
our  matrimonial  market. 

"  Oh,  no  1 "  she  replied.  "  We  would  want 
them  back.  They  have  talent  and  devotion  ; 
they  need  only  to  learn  to  work,  and  America  is 
the  world's  great  boss." 

At  this  point  in  the  conversation  the  Count  en- 
tered the  room.  The  Countess  had  told  me  that 
her  home  was  the  type  of  Poland  ;  she  had  not 
told  me  what  I  soon  discovered,  that  her  hus* 
band  was  the  typical  Pole,  both  physically  and 
mentally. 


"NOCHA/POLENJW^VERLOREN"  119 

He  was  a  small  man  with  unmistakable  Polish 
features,  which  looked  well  worn  ;  for  being  a 
Polish  nobleman,  he  had  travelled  through  life 
swiftly  and  indulgently.  After  scarcely  five 
minutes'  conversation,  he  began  talking  about 
the  sufferings  of  the  Poles,  and  what  they 
would  do  if  it  were  not  for  those  wicked  Ger- 
mans. 

Then  followed  what  was  as  nearly  a  family  jar 
as  I  care  to  witness.  My  hostess  opened  wide 
her  beautiful  eyes,  and,  in  most  forceful  Polish, 
gave  her  liege  lord  a  piece  of  her  mind. 

"  I  am  tired  of  your  tirades  against  the  Ger- 
mans. I  don't  admire  their  methodical  ways, 
myself ;  but  they  are  doing  things. 

"Go  out  of  Cracow  to  the  border  and  look 
across,  and  you  will  see  order  on  that  side  and 
disorder  on  this.  Step  into  a  German  train ;  it 
is  clean  and  efficiently  managed,  while  our 
cars,  from  the  first-class  to  the  third,  are  dirty 
and  ill-lighted  and  the  trains  go  by  fits  and 
starts. 

"  Go  to  the  German  towns,  and  you  will  find 
business  flourishing ;  while  ours  stagnates.  They 
don't  neglect  art,  either.  Their  music  may  be 
slower  than  ours,  but  it  is  art ;  their  paintings 
may  not  be  as  brilliant  as  ours,  but  they  are  as 
artistic.  Go  to  work  1  Do  something  worth 
while !  Build  from  the  foundations !  Develop 
some  backbone,  some  character,  do  better  than 


120  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

the  Germans,  and  then  you  may  call  them 
names  1 " 

The  sensitive  nostrils  of  the  husband  grew 
wider  and  contracted  again.  He  was  furiously 
angry;  but  facing  him  was  his  Americanized 
wife,  and  he  knew  that  "  Discretion  was  the 
better  part  of  valour" ;  so  he  permitted  his 
anger  to  cool  while  he  nervously  bit  the  ends  of 
his  moustache. 

"  Yes,"  he  said,  ignoring  the  Countess'  out- 
burst ;  "  there  is  a  great  future  for  us  Slavs 
when  we  ail  get  together.  We  were  in  Prague 
this  summer,  at  the  Slavic  Congress,  and  every- 
thing between  us  was  so  harmonious  that  I  have 
great  hopes  of  a  Slav  Confederation.  Then  we 
will  crush  our  German  oppressors.  What  do 
you  think  of  it?" 

I  analyzed  the  situation  thus :  "As  yet,  the 
Slavs  lack  racial  consciousness.  Each  group, 
no  matter  how  small,  thinks  itself  different  from 
the  other,  and  often  superior  to  it.  Not  only  are 
they  divided  by  small  historic  dissimilarities,  but 
religious  differences  have  obscured  racial  unity 
to  such  a  degree  that  I  have  but  little  hope  that 
their  racial  consciousness  will  soon  ripen  into 
tangible  results. 

"  In  the  great  game  of  politics,  the  Slav  has 
given  his  soul  as  a  pawn,  with  which  popes  and 
patriarchs  have  gambled.  Poland's  national  life 
has  been  lost,  not  so  much  by  corruption  from 


"  NOCH  1st  POLEN  Nicht  VERLOREN  "  121 

within,  as  because  the  Pole  was  used  as  a  tool 
by  the  Roman  Curia  in  the  game  of  world 
politics  she  was  playing,  and  playing  un- 
scrupulously." 

Ah  I  It  was  good  to  see  the  Countess'  dark 
eyes  dancing  from  pleasure,  while  I  thus  analyzed 
the  situation.  I  continued : 

"  The  Slav  either  lacks  sane  pride  in  his  race, 
or  he  has  an  overbearing  conceit ;  he  is  either 
easily  crushed,  or  he  crushes,  ruthlessly.  Look 
at  this  daily  paper.  In  Dalmatia,  the  Serbs  break 
the  windows  of  the  Italians,  and  tramp  madly 
through  the  streets  proclaiming  their  superiority 
over  the  Latins.  In  Laibach,  the  Slovene  does 
the  same  thing  to  the  Germans.  Tears  down 
German  business  signs,  shoots,  and  is  shot  in 
turn.  In  Prague,  the  Czechs  are  constantly 
bombarding  the  houses  of  the  Germans,  until 
martial  law  has  to  be  declared.  All  this,  to  the 
detriment  of  the  development  of  a  rational,  racial 
pride. 

"  And  these  same  boisterous,  roistering  Slavs, 
to-morrow  will  cringe  before  their  Magyar  and 
German  masters. 

"  Another  thing  is  in  the  way,"  I  hastened  to 
add  ;  for  I  saw  that  my  host  was  eager  to  talk : 
"The  Slavs  lack  collective  wisdom.  Where 
there  are  three  thinking  Slavs,  there  are  always 
three  quarrels.  People  who  wish  to  rule  must 
learn  to  act  wisely  together ;  yet  in  the  history 


122  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

of  the  Slavs  this  collective  wisdom,  this  inability 
of  one  group  to  acknowledge  the  equality  of  the 
other,  has  been  their  greatest  lack. 

"  The  Russian  revolution  failed,  even  as  the 
Polish  revolution  failed,  and  as  the  Czechs'  will 
fail,  because  they  lack  collective  wisdom.  It  will 
take  at  least  a  hundred  years,"  I  concluded  pro- 
phetically, "  before  you  Slavs  will  confederate." 

My  host  laughed  nervously.  "  You  are  a  false 
prophet.  It  will  come  in  a  decade.  We  will 
flow  together  like  small  rivers  into  a  great 
stream.  We  Poles,  of  course,  being  the  most 
cultured,  the  most  civilized,  and  the  best  pre- 
pared to  play  the  leading  r61e,  will  be  the  stream 
into  which  all  these  lesser  rivers  will  flow.  In 
the  great  overture  of  Slavic  union,  the  Pole  wilf 
play  the  leading  part" 

To  reason  with  such  a  man  was  futile ;  so  I 
drank  my  tea  and  looked  at  the  beautiful  lady 
opposite  me,  in  whom  the  practical  American 
and  the  idealistic  Pole  were  so  harmoniously 
blended.  Perhaps  in  her  person  she  was  a 
prophecy  of  the  great  day  to  come. 

The  Count  talked  incessantly  about  Poland, 
its  past,  its  powers,  its  enemies  ;  but  I  was  not 
listening. 

From  my  silence  he  thought  he  had  convinced 
me,  and  as  I  rose  to  go,  he  asked  :  "  Have  you 
not  changed  your  mind  about  its  taking  a  hun- 
dred years  to  federate  the  Slavs  ?  " 


"  NOCH  1st  POLEN  Nicht  VERLOREN  "  123 

"  Yes,"  I  replied,  "  I  have  changed  my  mind. 
It  will  take  two  hundred  years  ;  unless  " — and  I 
looked  at  my  fair  hostess — "you  bring  back 
many  more  such  Polish  women  from  America." 


IX 

THE  DISCIPLES  IN  THE   CARPATHIANS 

THE  river  Waag  has  a  broad  and  beauti- 
ful valley  in  which  to  indulge  its  vaga- 
bond habits.  Now  it  seeks  a  channel 
close  to  the  Carpathian  hills  on  one  side,  and 
again  rushes  far  away  towards  the  mountain 
wall,  close  to  the  Austrian  border. 

The  Romans  appropriately  named  the  river 
"  Waag,"  the  vagabond  river,  and  it  lives  up  to 
its  reputation  at  all  times  of  the  year.  One  can 
scarcely  find  fault  with  its  wandering  propensities, 
for  both  shore  lines  are  imposing  and  wildly  beau- 
tiful ;  many  of  the  little  towns  are  castle-crowned, 
while  each  town  and  each  castle  has  its  myth  and 
story,  rivalling  those  of  the  Rhine  in  fantastic  in- 
vention and  equalling  them  in  historic  interest. 

The  river  Waag,  however,  is  not  in  Germany, 
where  everything  is  prohibited,  regulated,  and 
subdued,  even  the  turbulent  rivers. 

This  is  Hungary,  the  ill-mated  spouse  in  that 
Austro-Hungarian  alliance,  in  which  quarrels  are 
continual,  and  divorce,  with  alimony  or  without 
it,  is  threatened  every  day.  Here  rivers  and 
races  foam  and  rage ;  floods  of  hate  beat  against 

124 


The  DISCIPLES  in  The  CARPATHIANS    125 

historic  walls  and  there  are  no  smooth  channels 
for  politics,  education,  or  religion. 

Struggle  there  is  everywhere.  Those  who  are 
too  weak  to  fight,  resist,  and  none,  however 
small  or  unimportant,  is  ready  to  surrender. 

Among  those  people  with  strength  enough  to 
resist,  but  not  enough  to  fight,  are  the  Slovaks, 
who  live  in  wretched  villages  on  both  sides  of 
the  river.  The  villages  grow  more  wretched  as 
they  climb  away  from  the  richer  valley  to  the 
scant  clearings  in  the  mountains,  where  poverty, 
ignorance,  superstition,  and  intemperance  are  the 
four  walls  which  hem  them  in  from  the  throbbing 
life  of  the  century  and  shut  them  out  from  it. 
No  one  climbs  the  almost  impassable  highways 
except  the  Magyar  gendarmes,  who  are  the 
minions  of  the  master  race  which  has  subdued 
the  Roumanians,  Ruthenians,  and  Germans 
within  its  borders,  and  is  now  hard  at  work  to 
blot  out  the  Slovaks,  the  feeble  remnant  of  a 
once  powerful  people. 

These  gendarmes  are  but  stupid  tools  in  the 
hands  of  a  stupid  government.  They  erase  the 
Slavic  names  of  villages  and  paint  over  them 
Magyar  names,  not  even  remotely  related  to  the 
original ;  they  prohibit  the  Slovak  language  in 
the  higher  schools,  fall  savagely  upon  assemblies 
of  innocent  folk  and  disperse  them  by  force  of 
arms,  annoy  unsuspicious  travellers  and  arrest 
nationalistic  agitators  and  severely  punish  them. 


126  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

Then  they  believe  that  th,ey  have  changed  sluggish 
Slovak  blood  into  the  fiery  Magyar  fluid,  obliter- 
ated age-long,  historic  memories,  created  in  a  day 
a  new  patriotism,  blotted  out  a  vernacular  spoken 
in  related  languages  and  dialects  by  100,000,000 
of  people  and  substituted  for  it  one  spoken  by  a 
warlike  people,  numbering  not  more  than  8,000,- 
ooo,  and  slowly  emerging  from  Asiatic  barbarism. 

This  they  believe  ;  but  the  fact  is  that  no  peo- 
ple were  ever  assimilated  by  force.  Force  be- 
gets resistance,  and  the  most  stupid  Slovak,  shut 
in  by  the  four  walls  of  his  wretched  isba,  if  he 
knows  nothing  else,  knows  that  the  Magyar  is  his 
enemy,  and  that  the  Magyar  speech  must  not 
lodge  in  his  memory  and  displace  his  mother 
tongue.  Although  he  may  have  no  knowledge; 
of  his  historic  past  and  no  idea  of  the  significance 
of  the  Slavic  race  of  which  he  is  a  member,  he 
does  know  that  he  must  resist  the  Magyars,  and 
resist,  only  where  he  cannot  fight. 

Two  forces  are  at  work  which  will  soon  turn 
this  resistance  into  fighting.  One  of  them  is  the 
unbearable  and  unreasonable  methods  used  by 
the  Hungarian  government,  and  the  other  is  that 
giant  in  the  growing,  the  returned  immigrant. 

The  Slovak  immigrant  comes  back  less  rugged 
but  more  agile  ;  for  he  has  passed  through  trials 
by  fire  and  by  flood  ;  he  goes  back  less  docile,  for 
he  has  had  no  masters  except  those  that  directed 
his  daily  task  ;  his  mind  is  awakened,  for  he  has 


The  DISCIPLES  in  The  CARPATHIANS  127 

read  the  uncensored  news  from  the  Fatherland ; 
news  coloured  more  or  less  by  the  not  always 
scrupulous  agitator  ;  added  to  all  this,  the  Slovak 
immigrant  goes  back  conscious  of  his  racial  in- 
heritance, for  he  was  one  of  a  great  Slavic  broth- 
erhood, organized  on  this  side  the  sea,  carrying 
on,  unhampered,  its  agitations  against  the  historic 
Magyar  foe.  Above  all,  he  goes  back  with  a 
bank  account,  and  money  is  power  in  business 
and  politics  alike. 

Hat  in  hand,  the  Slovak  used  to  wait  patiently 
at  the  ticket  window  until  the  Magyar  station 
agent  deigned  to  notice  him  and  sell  him  his 
third-class  ticket ;  then,  as  if  he  were  an  ox  being 
loaded  for  the  stockyards  at  Budapest,  the 
Magyar  conductor  would  push  him  into  a  car 
crowded  by  his  kind. 

I  have  repeatedly  seen  Slovak  men  and  women 
miss  the  only  train  that  could  take  them  to  the 
market  town  or  from  it,  because  the  proud  Mag- 
yar official  paid  no  attention  to  their  repeated 
request  for  a  ticket.  Day  after  day  I  have  wit- 
nessed the  incivilities  and  even  cruelties  they  had 
to  suffer  on  the  trains ;  but  when  the  Slovak 
comes  back,  he  knows  that  the  railroad  official  is 
only  a  servant,  his  servant,  and  he  treats  him  like 
one  ;  he  demands  attention.  Woe  unto  the  bribe- 
taking  conductor — and  there  are  no  oth'ers  on  the 
Hungarian  railways — who  pushes  him  into  a  car 
crowded  to  suffocation,  while  more  than  half  the 


128  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

cars  of  the  same  class  are  almost  empty,  with 
only  here  and  there  a  passenger,  who  is  politely 
treated  because  he  is  a  Magyar  or  because  he 
has  pressed  into  the  conductor's  responsive  hand 
the  usual  bribe. 

The  Slovak  immigrant  returns  home  some- 
what of  a  rebel.  The  Hungarian  government 
knows  this,  and  were  it  not  for  the  fact  that  he 
brings  back  money,  and  spends  it  freely,  his 
emigration  to  America  would  be  forbidden. 

Recently  a  special  police  force  has  been 
created  to  watch  every  outgoing  and  incoming 
train,  and  every  third-class  passenger  who  has 
baggage  enough  to  mark  him  as  an  emigrant  is 
detained,  rigidly  examined,  and  if  permitted  to  go 
to  America  at  all,  is  sent  via  the  Hungarian  port 
of  Fiume.  On  the  way  he  is  duly  inoculated  by 
the  fact  that  he  is  an  Hungarian  subject  and  that 
as  such  he  must  return. 

The  stupidity  and  the  illiberal  spirit  of  the 
Hungarian  government  are  nowhere  more 
clearly  manifested  than  in  its  relation  to  the 
religious  movements  which  are  American  in 
their  origin  and  which  have  been  transplanted 
from  the  Alleghanies  to  the  Carpathians.  In  the 
hands  of  a  truly  liberal  government  this  new 
force  might  become  a  constructive  and  saving 
one  to  multitudes  of  people ;  instead,  it  is 
alienated,  put  on  the  defensive  and  limited  in 
its  usefulness. 


The  DISCIPLES  in  The  CARPATHIANS    129 

When  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  expedition,  of  which  I 
was  the  leader,  reached  the  valley  of  the  Waag, 
to  study  the  Slovak  language  and  people,  serious 
difficulties  to  the  carrying  out  of  our  plans 
presented  themselves.  The  towns  have  all  be- 
come Magyarized  by  the  gendarmes  and  a 
multitude  of  officials.  To  speak  the  Slovak 
language  marks  one  an  inferior  and  renders  one 
an  object  of  suspicion. 

The  village  inns  are  merely  dram-shops,  kept 
and  generally  ill-kept  by  Jews,  who  are  under  the 
influence  of  the  Magyars,  and  consequently  look 
down  upon  the  Slovaks.  Even  had  it  been  pos- 
sible for  us  to  lodge  in  one  of  these  inns,  our 
friendly  attitude  towards  the  Slovaks  would  have 
forbidden  it. 

The  gendarmes  were  alert  and  agitated  from 
the  moment  we  entered  the  valley,  and  when 
they  learned  the  nature  of  our  errand  they  were 
incredulous.  "  Who  ever  heard  of  anybody's 
having  a  disinterested  concern  for  the  Slovaks  ? 
How  could  they  believe  that  Americans,  cold, 
materialistic  Americans,  would  equip  an  expedi- 
tion to  study  the  needs  of  this  downtrodden  race, 
that  it  might  be  lifted  up  ?  Of  course,  we  were 
nationalistic  agitators  sent  out  by  the  Slovanic 
Society  of  America,  to  arouse  the  half-awake 
Slovak  into  revolution." 

That  which  confirmed  them  in  this  suspicion 
was  the  fact  that  the  only  place  where  it  was  p« 


I3o  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

sible  for  us  to  lodge  was  the  home  of  Jan  Chor- 
vat, Apostle  of  the  Christian  faith  in  the  Carpa- 
thians, and  suspected  of  being  a  revolutionary, 
because  he  preached  to  his  countrymen  in  their 
native  tongue ;  preached  to  them  a  Gospel  broad 
enough  to  embrace  all  races  and  nationalities, 
strong  enough  to  wean  them  from  drink  and  free 
enough  to  loose  them  from  the  bonds  of  supersti- 
tion and  ecclesiastical  tyranny. 

The  simple  and  perfect  hospitality  which  Jan 
Chorvat  and  his  wife  offered  us  was  the  product 
of  that  faith.  Without  hesitation  they  moved 
into  the  basement  and  gave  the  upper  rooms  to 
their  guests.  The  first  night  of  our  sojourn  with 
them,  our  hearts  were  cheered,  and  we  felt  as  if 
we  were  at  home  when  we  overheard  their  even- 
ing devotions.  The  words  of  an  English  hymn, 
"  My  Faith  Looks  up  to  Thee,"  came  in  subdued 
tones  through  the  thick  walls  of  the  room  below. 
Then  Jan  Chorvat  prayed,  as  only  those  can  pray 
who  walk  consciously  with  God.  The  sentences 
which  I  could  translate  from  the  strange  tongue 
knitted  us  into  an  unbroken  friendship. 

"  I  thank  Thee,  God,  that  Thou  hast  put  it 
into  the  hearts  of  the  American  people  to  send 
these  dear  brothers  across  the  sea,  that  they 
might  learn  to  speak  the  tongue  of  my  people  so 
that  they  may  serve  them  in  the  far-away  land 
and  inspire  them  to  become  sober  and  chaste ; 
good  citizens,  good  husbands,  and  good  brothers. 


The  DISCIPLES  in  The  CARPATHIANS   131 

"  May  these  young  brothers  learn,  above  all, 
to  love  my  people  with  the  passion  of  Jesus,  so 
that  they  will  be  able  to  lead  them  to  the  source 
of  all  redemptive  power — Jesus  Christ" 

Jan  Chorvat  and  his  wife,  in  their  outlook 
upon  life,  in  the  strength  of  their  convictions,  in 
their  passion  for  righteousness,  would  have  fitted 
easily  into  the  church  of  the  Puritans  anywhere 
on  this  side  the  sea,  where  Puritanism  is  still  at 
its  best.  In  his  asceticism  Jan  Chorvat  reminded 
us  of  John  the  Baptist,  in  the  sweetness  of  his 
temper  of  the  Beloved  Disciple,  and,  in  his  zeal  and 
passion  for  Christ,  of  the  Apostle  to  the  Gentiles. 

Here  was  a  Slovak  who  spoke  English  almost 
perfectly,  who  wrote  his  native  language  classic- 
ally, who  clung  to  a  noble  faith  passionately ; 
yet  that  which  bound  us  to  him  closely  and  I 
must  regretfully  admit,  most  closely,  was  the  fact 
that  Jan  Chorvat  was  what  he  was,  because  of 
certain  religious  influences  emanating  from 
America.  These  influences  and  ideals,  which  are 
slowly  growing  stronger,  are  being  augmented 
and  reenforced  by  returning  immigrants  who 
come  home  with  a  passion  for  their  kinsmen, 
eager  to  redeem  them  from  their  individual  and 
national  sins. 

The  centre  of  this  religious  movement  is  in 
O  Tura,  one  of  those  mountain  villages  isolated, 
but  brought  into  the  world's  current  by  mighty 
ideals ;  fit  birthplace  of  a  new  hope. 


132  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

Here  a  Protestant  pastor  ministered  in  the 
more  or  less  stereotyped  forms  of  the  established 
faith,  and,  when  he  died,  left  three  daughters,  the 
"  Roy  Sisters,"  to  carry  on  his  work  for  the 
people  he  loved.  Hampered  by  a  strict  ortho- 
doxy and  a  suspicious  government,  they  hun- 
gered with  their  people  and  for  them,  uncon- 
scious of  a  larger  faith  and  a  better  way ;  until 
so  commonplace  a  thing  as  a  religious  news- 
paper, published  by  the  missionaries  of  the 
American  Board  at  Prague,  found  its  way  to 
them. 

Our  credulity  has  been  so  severely  tested  by 
the  narratives  of  missionaries  who  hinged  mighty 
consequences  upon  trivial  causes,  that  here  too 
one  is  assailed  by  doubt ;  until  one  reads  Chris- 
tina Roy's  little  story :  "  How  I  came  to  the 
Light." 

In  simple  yet  graphic  language,  she  tells  of 
her  life  in  the  parsonage,  her  father's  struggle 
against  adverse  conditions,  her  own  budding 
ideals,  and  finally  the  important  moment  when 
for  the  first  time  she  came  in  touch  with  the  vital 
truths  of  Christianity  as  presented  in  the  little 
Bohemian  newspaper,  Bethania.  Upon  so  slen- 
der a  thread  travelled  this  mighty  current  which 
gave  direction  to  her  own  life,  which  has  enabled 
her  to  enlarge  the  vision  of  an  oppressed  peas- 
antry, and  which  is  now  encouraging  her  and 
the  noble  group  of  men  and  women  around  her 


The  DISCIPLES  in  The  CARPATHIANS   133 

to  attempt  the  almost  hopeless  struggle  against 
intemperance. 

Whether  one  agrees  with  the  type  of  theology 
which  these  people  preach  or  not,  one  can  but 
feel  that  they  are  in  touch  with  real  spiritual 
forces,  and  that,  by  the  test  of  character  and  of 
work  accomplished,  we  who  travel  faster  in  the 
paths  of  what  we  call  progress,  are  compelled  to 
halt  and  admire. 

The  students  who  were  the  members  of  my 
expedition  were  nearly  all  recent  college  gradu- 
ates and  had  left  their  schools  with  much  of  their 
traditional  faith  unsettled.  Any  doubts  they  may 
have  had  regarding  the  doctrine  of  the  Incarna- 
tion, as  it  is  commonly  interpreted,  were  lost, 
when  they  saw  the  spirit  of  Jesus  dominating 
the  lives  of  simple  peasants  whose  dull  faces 
have  become  radiant,  whose  animal  appetites 
have  been  controlled,  and  whose  homes  have 
become  the  abodes  of  peace  and  happiness. 

To  look  into  the  faces  of  the  "  Roy  Sisters,"  of 
Jan  Chorvat  and  his  wife,  and  of  hundreds  of 
peasants  who  come  to  hear  the  Gospel  preached 
in  true  simplicity,  was  a  better  definition  of  the 
doctrine  of  the  Incarnation  than  any  professor  of 
theology  can  give. 

The  Atonement,  as  defined  by  our  orthodox 
churches  and  which  is  such  a  stumbling-block 
to  the  rationalistic  mind,  lost  all  its  mystery  in 
watching  another  member  of  this  group,  John 


134  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

Rohacek,  at  work  among  the  gypsies ;  loving 
those  whom  no  one  loves,  living  with  them  in 
huts  by  the  wayside  and  trying  with  a  divine 
passion  to  lift  them  out  of  age-long  Paganism 
into  a  wholesome  relation  to  the  doctrine : 
"  Without  the  shedding  of  blood  there  is  no  re- 
mission of  sin." 

Although  John  RohacSk  believes  with  all  his 
simple  soul  that  "  Jesus  paid  it  all,"  he  is  willing 
and  eager  to  shed  his  blood  for  God's  despised 
children,  those  most  neglected  of  all,  the  gypsies. 
For  them  he  has  suffered  persecution,  imprison- 
ment, hunger  and  thirst,  in  the  true  apostolic 
spirit;  and  although  those  American  students 
may  never  be  able  to  explain  to  themselves  the 
meaning  of  the  Atonement,  they  certainly  will 
never  be  able  to  say  that  they  have  not  seen  the 
Atonement  "  at  work." 

Here  among  the  Slovaks,  the  seed  sown  by 
the  American  missionary  at  home  and  abroad 
has  brought  forth  more  vital  fruit,  perhaps,  than 
on  the  home  soil.  Although  these  Slovak  dis- 
ciples have  gone  out  to  save  only  this  one  or 
that  one,  they  are  helping  to  save  a  nation  and 
are  lifting  a  race  out  of  degeneration. 

Nominally,  Jan  Chorvat  was  a  teacher  in  the 
Slovak  language  to  our  expedition  ;  and  to  learn 
the  more  effectually,  my  students  often  went  with 
him  on  his  tours  from  village  to  village.  As 
they  walked,  he  explained  to  them  the  grammar 


2  "« 

SH      **"* 

^H  O 

II 

3         3 

2    1 


H      " 


1  5 

2  s 

H  * 

X  6 

H  "5> 


The  DISCIPLES  in  The  CARPATHIANS  135 

and  enriched  their  vocabulary.  How  much  of 
the  difficult  Slovak  language  they  will  remember 
when  they  come  to  their  task  in  Pennsylvania,  I 
do  not  know  ;  but  they  can  never  forget  the  les- 
sons he  taught  them  by  his  singleness  of  pur- 
pose, his  devotion  to  his  people,  and  his  fearless 
approach  to  those  who  he  thought  needed  his 
admonition.  Those  students  will  surely  remem- 
ber that  "  Though  they  speak  with  the  tongues 
of  men  and  of  angels,  and  have  not  love,  it  prof- 
iteth  nothing." 

The  last  day  of  our  stay  in  Hungary  brought 
us  early  to  a  village  at  the  foot  of  the  Tatra 
mountains,  the  village  of  Czorba.  Leaving  our 
uncomfortable  third-class  carriage  in  which  we 
had  spent  the  night,  we  were  quickly  revived  by 
the  ozone-laden  mountain  air,  and  by  the  mar- 
vellous sight  which  greeted  our  eyes.  Here  were 
the  giant  mountains  of  Hungary  which  she  has 
proudly  pictured  highest  on  her  escutcheon. 

That  which  most  quickened  us,  however,  as  a 
group  of  strangers,  was  the  greeting  extended 
to  us  by  three  men  waiting  in  the  early  dawn. 
They  had  come  many  miles  on  foot  to  meet  us, 
and  carried  huge  loaves  of  rye  bread  and  bottles 
of  milk  for  our  refreshment.  They  were  to  guide 
us  to  the  top  of  the  mountain.  The  three  men 
belonged  to  three  antagonistic  races  of  Hungary, 
and  we  were  Americans,  a  conglomerate  of  races ; 
Teutonic,  Semitic,  and  Celtic.  Together  we  broke 


136  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

bread,  prayed,  sang,  and  exchanged  thoughts 
about  the  vital  things  of  life. 

The  man  who  appeared  to  be  the  leader  of  the 
group,  the  brightest  and  happiest  of  the  three, 
the  one  with  the  largest  outlook  on  life,  was  a 
Slovak  who  had  found  his  vision  and  his  happi- 
ness in  America.  He  worked  in  a  blacksmith's 
shop  in  Torrington,  Conn.  Here  some  one  with 
a  passion  for  common  men  ministered  to  him 
and  led  him  from  drunkenness  to  sobriety,  and 
from  his  coarse  animal  existence  into  fellowship 
with  the  divine.  He  returned  home  and  is  daily 
at  his  task  of  shoeing  horses  and  mending 
broken  ploughshares  ;  but  he  never  forgets  that 
what  carried  him  back  among  his  people  was 
his  awakened  passion  for  them. 

At  the  forge,  he  preaches  the  gospel  of 
sobriety,  of  industry,  and  of  peace ;  and,  as  he 
welds  broken  iron,  so  he  is  trying  to  weld  into 
union  the  three  alien  races  that  battle  round  the 
foot  of  the  Tatra.  The  task  is  difficult,  and  it 
will  be  slow. 

The  stupid  and  materialistic  Hungarian 
government  is  trying  to  accomplish  this  task 
by  throwing  people  into  prison,  because  they 
love  their  mother  tongue,  or  do  not  lightly  re- 
gard their  historic  inheritance. 

The  Slovak  Christian  will  certainly  accom- 
plish more  than  the  gendarmes  for  the  unifi- 
cation of  these  alien  peoples  in  Hungary ;  for 


The  DISCIPLES  in  The  CARPATHIANS    137 

the   Gospel   is   more  powerful  than   guns  and 
bayonets. 

As  we  parted  from  our  new  friends  that  last 
day,  we  sang :  "  Blest  be  the  Tie  that  Binds." 
The  gendarmes,  who  were  watching  us,  thought 
we  were  singing  some  revolutionary  "  Marseil- 
laise," and  in  that  they  were  not  mistaken  ;  for 
there  is  nothing  more  revolutionary  than  the 
force  which  "  Binds  our  hearts  in  Christian 
Love." 


X 

THE  GUSLAR  OF  RAGUSA 

IT  is  a  long  time  since  I  first  saw  Dalmatia, 
on  the  eastern  shore  of  the  Adriatic.  Her 
hills  were  denuded  of  verdure,  monotonously 
barren  and  ashen  gray,  with  a  bit  of  Paradise 
here  and  there  along  the  edge  of  the  sea.  In 
silence,  her  ancient  cities  mourned  a  turbulent 
past  of  which  they  were  reminded  by  walls  and 
palaces  which  the  Romans  built,  as  only  the 
Romans  knew  how  to  build. 

Although  these  walls  have  felt  the  force  of 
Venetian  battering-rams,  of  French,  Turkish,  and 
Austrian  cannon-balls,  they  still  stand,  silent 
witnesses  of  a  civilization  which  carried  culture 
in  the  path  of  its  conquest,  and  brought  a  certain 
kind  of  liberty  to  its  captives.  The  Venetians 
took  away  these  liberties,  and,  in  exchange, 
gave  the  Dalmatians  churches,  whose  graceful 
campaniles  tower  over  the  gray  and  solid  Roman 
walls. 

The  French  came  and  went ;  but,  far  as  the 
eye  can  see,  left  nothing  behind  them. 

Austria  brought  soldiers  who  are  still  there ; 
nesting  in  the  forts,  commanding  the  mule-paths 

138 


O     e 
0     I 


THE  GUSLAR  OF  RAGUSA    139 

and  seaways  and  hated  by  the  native  popula- 
tion, which  is  Slavic  with  a  sprinkling  of  Italian, 
both  races  being  antagonistic  to  the  ruling 
power. 

That  Dalmatia  has  been  badly  governed,  no 
one  denies.  It  has  been  purposely  kept  out  of 
touch  with  the  mainland,  the  old  motherland 
behind  it,  Croatia.  Only  by  the  sea  had  it  ac- 
cess to  other  peoples,  to  whom  it  rarely  went 
and  who  seldom  came  to  it. 

Of  all  Dalmatian  cities,  Ragusa  is  the  proudest, 
even  as  it  is  the  poorest.  Once  the  seat  of  a 
virile  republic,  she  sent  out  armadas  for  conquest, 
watched  from  her  sea-girt  walls  the  struggles 
between  Venice  and  the  Ottomans,  and,  by  force 
of  arms,  helped  to  decide  the  destinies  of  nations. 

Ragusa's  glory  was  short,  but  memory  is 
long  ;  although  her  harbour  is  choked  and  use- 
ess,  her  sea-wall  in  ruins,  and  her  pavements 
grass-grown ;  still  under  marble  porticoes  half- 
sunk  into  the  ground,  sit  the  grandees  of  the 
city,  smoking  the  Turkish  czibuk  and  musing 
over  those  golden  days  when  Ragusa  called  her- 
self the  "  Queen  of  the  Adria,"  and  fought  with 
Venice  for  its  supremacy. 

On  the  corner  of  the  Stradona  and  the  Piazza, 
there  stood  all  day  long  an  old  minstrel,  who 
strummed  monotonous  strains  on  the  gusla, 
while  he  sang  the  epics  inspired  by  centuries  of 
conflict.  As  he  sang,  the  grandees  smoked  and 


140  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

mused ;  while  the  lesser  folk  cobbled  opankee^ 
embroidered  garments  after  Oriental  fashion, 
and  wove  tiny  strands  of  silver  into  crude  filigree. 

The  old  guslar  was  minstrel,  poet,  and  his- 
torian. It  was  he  who  told  me  marvellous 
stories  of  the  time  when  in  each  of  those  palaces 
on  the  Stradone  there  lived  a  statesman-soldier, 
at  war  politically  with  one  half  his  world  and  in 
social  rivalry  with  the  other  half.  The  city's 
gentlefolk  were  divided  into  the  Salamanchesi 
and  the  Sorbonnesi ;  those  who  sent  their  sons 
to  the  University  of  Salamanca  and  those  who 
sent  them  to  the  Sorbonne. 

These  divergent  cultural  currents  kept  the 
nobility  apart  and  gave  ample  cause  for  petty 
quarrels ;  many  a  Ragusan  Romeo's  love  for  his 
Juliet  has  furnished  material  for  a  romance  and 
for  a  beautiful  funeral. 

Against  these  old  walls  and  old  traditions  the 
immigrant  tide  has  been  beating  for  the  last  ten 
years,  carrying  away  the  grandee's  sons,  numbers 
of  whom  are  now  digging  coal  in  Pennsylvania, 
or  waiting  on  table  in  some  cheap  restaurant  in 
New  York.  Yet,  whether  he  lives  in  a  wretched 
boarding-house  in  a  Pittsburg  "Patch,"  or  ac- 
cepts the  modest  tip  his  patrons  give  him,  the 
son  of  a  Ragusan  grandee  never  forgets  his 
nobility. 

These  immigrants,  too,  have  gone  home  again, 
and  make  their  presence  felt,  economically  and 


THE  GUSLAR  OF  RAGUSA    141 

socially.  They  have  repaired  the  old  palaces 
and  brought  money  into  circulation  ;  but  the  old 
guslar,  who  stood  on  the  corner  of  the  Stradona 
and  the  Piazza,  and  whom  I  sought  out  after 
these  ten  years,  had  his  story  to  tell. 

"  Yes,  Signor,  many  have  gone  to  America  and 
have  come  back,  and  will  go  again ;  but,  Signor, 
that  must  be  a  bad  country,  a  wild  country. 
They  come  home  and  walk  carelessly  up  and 
down  the  Stradona,  the  finest  street  in  the  world, 
every  house  a  palace — and  they  talk  of  it  with 
disrespect ! 

"  Why,  Signor,  they  say  that  in  America  there 
are  finer  streets  than  this,  and  bigger  houses,  and 
they  laugh  at  the  Dogana,  Signor — at  the  Dogana, 
where  our  Principes  and  our  Consiglios  made 
treaties  with  the  great  powers,  where  we  received 
the  ambassadors  of  the  Sultan  and  of  the  Doges 
of  Venice  I 

"Signor,  they  walk  up  and  down  the  street 
with  their  heavy-soled  shoes,  talking  loudly,  and 
making  such  a  noise  that  the  grandees  cannot 
take  their  siestas  undisturbed 

"  Yes,  Signor,  there  are  some  of  them  here 
now.  They  came  back  a  fortnight  ago,  a  man 
and  his  two  daughters.  A  good-for-nothing  he 
is,  Signor.  Think  of  it !  Ah,  listen ! "  He 
paused  abruptly.  I  listened.  The  sweet,  har- 
monious quiet  was  rudely  broken  ;  the  air,  full  of 
the  fragrance  of  oleander  blossoms,  seemed  sud- 


i42         THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

denly  vitiated ;  the  Monte  Sergio  and  the  sway* 
ing  palms  beneath  it,  which  made  so  marvellous 
a  picture,  seemed  to  drop  with  a  crash  out  of 
their  frame  of  sky  and  sea. 

"  Signer,  listen  1 "  And  the  old  guslai 
trembled  from  anger  and  pain.  It  was  the 
grinding  of  a  phonograph  which  struck  our  ears. 
"  Listen,  Signer !  That  they  bring  out  of 
America !  Out  of  your  barbaric  country  1 " 

True  enough  ;  they  were  the  painfully  familiar 
notes  of  "  canned  ragtime  "  at  its  worst. 

"  Signor,  that  man  has  come  back  with  his  two 
daughters.  They  can't  speak  a  word  of  their 
mother  tongue ;  and  oh,  Signor !  they  walk  up 
and  down  the  Stradona  without  a  duenna,  they 
look  boldly  at  the  men,  and  they  keep  their  jaws 
moving  constantly,  even  when  they  do  not  speak. 

"  The  father  drinks,  he  drinks  maraschino  by 
the  bottleful  and  he  denies  the  pavements  of  our 
ancient  streets  by  his  polluted  spittle.  You  want 
to  go  to  see  him  ?  "  The  guslar  looked  deeply 
hurt.  He  feared  that  the  phonograph  had  lured 
me  from  him. 

"  No,  I  shan't  go  until  you  play  and  sing  for 
me." 

He  took  his  gusla  and  moved  his  bow  gently 
over  its  single  string,  while  he  sang  of  "  Mustapha 
who  came  riding  on  a  dapple  gray  stallion,  with 
thirty  Pashas  as  his  escort.  He  struck  a  glass 
of  wine  from  the  hand  of  a  Servian  hero,  who 


THE  GUSLAR  OF  RAGUSA       143 

vowed  that  he  would  shed  the  black  blood  of  the 
Turk,"  which,  after  many  monotonous  verses,  he 
did. 

"  Signer,  I  can't  sing  very  well — ah,  there  it  is 
again  I " 

While  he  had  been  singing  about  Mustapha, 
who  died  so  many  years  ago,  the  phonograph 
bawled  lustily  about  "  Tammany,  Tammany," 
which,  unfortunately,  is  very  much  alive. 

I  made  my  peace  with  the  guslar  by  putting 
into  his  hand  a  liberal  fee  ;  then  I  followed  the 
sound  of  the  phonograph  which  had  been  switched 
from  "Tammany  "  to  the  song  of  "  A  nice  young 
man,  that  lives  in  Kalamazoo." 

On  the  lower  floor  of  a  house  in  one  of  the 
small  streets  which  divide  the  Stradona,  I  dis- 
covered the  phonograph  and  its  owner,  a  man 
neither  of  the  nobility  nor  noble.  His  knowl- 
edge of  America  extended  as  far  as  Brooklyn 
arid  the  Austro-Italian  docks,  near  which  he  had 
established  a  boarding-house.  Of  course,  he  had 
come  home  rich,  and  only  for  a  visit. 

"  Who  could  live  in  Ragusa  after  Brooklyn  ?  " 

He  told  me  that  he  made  a  great  deal  of 
money  selling  liquor,  and  acknowledged  that  he 
sold  it  without  a  license.  Besides  that,  the  sailors 
brought  over  various  articles  for  which  he  found 
a  ready  market.  His  case  would  not  be  worth 
recording  were  it  not  for  the  fact  that  he  may  be 
looked  upon  as  a  man  who  has  been  spoiled  by 


144  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

his  sojourn  with  us.  I  doubt,  though,  that  there 
was  anything  to  spoil ;  evidently,  he  was  a  man 
of  poor  breeding  and  low  moral  standards.  In 
America,  he  had  found  an  outlet  for  his  evil 
tendencies,  and  a  bad  business  which  offered  op- 
portunities for  lawlessness. 

His  daughters  were  more  interesting  than  he  ; 
for  they  came  back  perfect  strangers,  into  the 
environment  which  they  had  left  as  children. 
They  had  quite  forgotten  Italian  and  spoke 
Serbo-Slavic  very  poorly  ;  while  their  English  was 
typical. 

"  Golly  1    But  Ragusa  is  a  bum  town  ! " 

The  Adriatic  shore  could  not  be  compared 
with  the  sea  they  knew,  bordered  as  it  was  by 
Coney  Island. 

"  No,  sir-ree !  Give  me  Coney  Island,  and 
you  can  have  this  two  for  a  cent,  Gravoosa." 
And  I  suppose,  the  peninsula  of  Lapad  also, 
circled  by  palms  and  olives  and  set  in  a  sea  of 
turquoise  blue. 

When  I  mentioned  the  guslar,  one  of  the  girls 
said  that  he  "  might  make  a  hit  at  Coney  Island 
as  a  side-show." 

"  Were  there  many  Dalmatians  in  America  ?  " 
I  asked  the  father. 

"  You  bet !  They  have  gone  from  along  the 

whole coast,  and  there  is  one little 

town  near  Lucin  Piccolo  where  there  is  not  an 
able-bodied  man  left.  They'll  all  come  over 


THE  GUSLAR  OF  RAGUSA    145 

when  they  get  the money.  The  more 

come  the  better  for  me." 

His  place  was  the  centre  to  which  they  came 
and  from  which  they  radiated. 

"  What  do  they  do  in  America  ?  "  I  asked. 

"  Oh !  any  old  thing.  It  all  depends.  There 
is  one  back  here  now." 

"  He's  a  regular  big  head,"  interrupted  one  of 
the  girls  ;  "  thinks  he's  the  whole  cheese.  He's 
a  newspaper  man.  I  suppose  he'll  be  on  the 
Stradona  to-night." 

Every  evening  after  sunset,  all  Ragusa  wakens 
out  of  its  day-dreams  and  is  on  parade  in  the 
Stradona. 

Demure  maidens  come  out  from  behind  latticed 
windows,  reflecting  in  their  garments  the  sombre 
hues  borrowed  from  Venice,  and  a  riot  of  Oriental 
colours.  They  are  dark-eyed  creatures,  these 
maidens,  and  their  faces,  as  well  as  their  garb, 
show  the  mixture  of  Latin  and  Slav  ;  for  this  is 
the  battling-ground  of  the  two  races,  the  persistent 
Slav  being  in  the  ascendency. 

The  youths  followed  at  a  distance ;  for 
propriety  is  one  of  the  assets  of  Ragusan  so- 
ciety. 

Noiselessly  they  walked  up  and  down  over  the 
grass-grown  pavement,  and,  when  one  heard  the 
heavy-soled  shoe  striking  it,  one  recognized  the 
stranger ;  and  by  that  sign  I  knew  the  Ragusan- 
American  newspaper  man.  A  graceful,  swarthy 


146  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

young  fellow  he  was,  upon  whose  face  his  new 
environment  had  already  written  its  story. 

His  eyes  had  lost  their  melancholy  look,  for 
he  had  escaped  the  thraldom  of  the  past  and 
seemed  like  a  man  fully  awake  to  the  present 
When  we  met,  he  looked  at  my  shoes,  I  looked 
at  his,  and  the  contact  was  made. 

Interesting,  indeed,  his  story  was,  beginning 
with  his  running  away  from  home,  one  of  those 
ancient  palaces  on  the  Stradona.  His  assets 
were :  money  enough  to  take  him  to  Triest, 
third-class,  a  large  stock  of  inherited  pride,  and 
nothing  else. 

At  that  time  there  was  no  passenger  service 
from  Triest,  but  there  were  freight  steamers  and 
a  chance  to  serve  as  steward  to  the  officer's  mess. 
Three  weeks  of  life  on  the  sea  and  then  New  York. 
There  he  served  his  apprenticeship  in  the  art  of 
"  getting  along  "  by  walking  up  and  down  Broad- 
way, hungry  and  cold,  sleeping  in  "  Sailor's 
Boarding  Houses,"  and  finally  in  the  police 
station. 

At  last  came  a  turn  in  his  fortunes,  through 
getting  work  as  a  strawberry-picker  in  New 
Jersey,  then  working  in  a  restaurant  in  Pennsyl- 
vania as  waiter  and  cook.  After  much  chance 
and  change,  he  had  become  the  owner  of  an 
Italian  newspaper,  whose  chief  object  was  to 
chronicle  the  happenings  in  the  Fatherland,  for 
the  edification  of  his  countrymen, 


THE  GUSLAR  OF  RAGUSA    147 

It  had  been  a  rough  road,  but  it  was  worth  the 
struggle  ;  for  it  led  to  usefulness  and  into  life.  He 
thought  that  his  countrymen  always  experienced 
unusual  difficulties  in  America. 

"  The  masses  of  them  are  illiterate  to  an  alarm- 
ing degree ;  bound  by  traditions,  tribal  in  their 
social  outlook,  and  serve  as  so  much  carrion 
for  those  birds  of  prey,  the  steamship  companies' 
agents,  the  padrone,  the  boarding-house  keeper, 
the  saloon,  and  the  venal  justice  of  the  peace." 

Oui  national  moral  character  he  interpreted  in 
the  light  of  the  experiences  of  his  countrymen, 
and  his  judgment  was  not  a  flattering  one.  Yet 
he  admitted  that  America  is  a  blessing  to 
Dalmatia.  It  has  relieved  bitter  poverty,  men- 
tally awakened  the  people,  and  has  broken  down 
worthless  traditions. 

In  Dalmatia,  as  elsewhere,  the  returned  im- 
migrant has  sharpened  the  hunger  for  political 
liberties,  and  has  intensified  the  struggle  between 
the  oppressed  and  the  oppressor. 

Wherever  the  government  was  aided  by  the 
reactionary  church,  the  people  left  the  church. 
This  is  especially  true  of  the  northern  towns  of 
the  peninsula,  between  Zara  and  Triest. 

"  Yes,  indeed !  The  returned  immigrant  causes 
much  trouble,  and  I  am  no  exception.  I  wound 
my  parents  by  my  democratic  ways,  and  I  have 
forgotten  many  of  the  niceties  of  their  social  life. 

"Yes,  it  was  I  who  hurt  the  guslar's  feelings 


I48  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

by  telling  him  that  there  are  streets  in  New  York 
finer  than  the  Stradona,  and  houses  bigger  than 
the  Dogana.  Ah,  yes  ;  the  returned  immigrant 
causes  both  sorrow  and  annoyance.  Just  watch 
that  man  and  his  two  daughters." 

There  they  were ;  the  man  from  Brooklyn, 
garishly  attired.  His  daughters  walked  proudly 
beside  him,  heedless  of  the  fact  that  over  those 
pavements  generations  of  Ragusa's  great  men 
had  walked  to  victory  or  to  death. 

The  Brooklyn  man  seemed  quite  oblivious  ot 
the  fact  that  these  people  whom  he  passed  so 
carelessly  were  the  sons  and  daughters  of  nobles 
and  heroes.  He  did  not  lift  his  hat  to  them  or 
step  aside  to  let  them  pass ;  his  daughters  occu- 
pied more  than  their  share  of  space,  with  their 
gorgeous  and  exaggerated  hats,  and  smiled  en- 
couragingly on  the  young  men  whom  they  met, 
although  strangers  to  them. 

Later,  there  was  much  discussion  of  these 
"  Americans,"  among  those  who  spend  the  even- 
ing at  the  "  Cafe  Arciduca  Federigo  "  ;  smoking, 
singing,  sipping  granite,  and  talking  about  the 
good  old  days,  those  quiet,  dreamy  days  which 
they  had  spent  on  this  matchless  spot,  watching 
the  sea  as  it  encircled  with  its  phosphorescent 
splendour  the  Island  of  Lacroma,  or  when,  beaten 
by  the  Bora,  it  lashed  itself  into  fury  against  the 
ancient  walls. 

The   young   newspaper   man  told  me  much 


THE  GUSLAR  OF  RAGUSA         149 

about  the  pride  and  poverty  of  his  countrymen, 
of  their  love  for  this  fair  spot,  of  their  moral 
standards,  and  their  unbroken  word. 

The  guslar,  standing  in  front  of  the  cafe,  be- 
gan tuning  his  Jeremaic  instrument,  looking 
wistfully,  as  he  did  so,  at  the  stranger  who  had 
given  him  so  liberal  a  fee.  He  needed  but  slight 
encouragement  to  begin  his  plaintive  recitative. 
A  few  lines  clung  to  my  memory  ;  for  they  fitted 
so  well  into  my  conversation  with  the  young 
Ragusan : 

"  Go  out  and  sing  of  right  and  truth, 

Of  valour  and  of  manly  strife ; 
Better  far,  thy  tongue  grow  mute 
Than  that  thou  sing  of  baser  life 
For  common  gain." 

In  the  middle  of  a  verse,  he  dropped  his  in- 
strument hopelessly. 

"  Oh,  Signer  1  These  terrible  Americans  I 
Listen ! " 

The  quiet  of  that  matchless  night  was  being 
assailed  by  the  awful  refrain  of :  "  There'll  be  a 
hot  time  in  the  old  town  to-night." 

"  Ah,  me,  Signor !  This  will  be  my  ruin  !  All 
the  young  men  are  at  that  man's  house  drinking 
like  beasts ;  they  no  more  care  for  me,  or  for  the 
heroic  songs  of  their  ancestors,  and  while  they 
used  to  give  me  kreutzer,  they  now  give  me 
heller,  if  they  give  me  anything." 


1 50         THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

The  old  minstrel  sighed  profoundly  and  dis- 
appeared into  the  darkness,  his  gusla  under  his 
arm ;  while  from  the  tin  horn  poured  a  medley 
of  songs,  the  climax  of  which  was :  "  A  nice 
young  man  that  lives  in  Kalamazoo.'' 

The  sorrowful  old  man  and  his  grief  made 
me  feel  guilty,  as  if  I  were  responsible  for  that 
terrible,  torturing,  unmusical  outburst  which 
disturbed  the  peace  of  the  wonderful  night. 

After  the  guslar  had  left  us,  the  newspaper 
man  rowed  me  in  his  father's  barquetta  across 
the  shallow  harbour,  as  far  as  the  shadow  cast 
by  the  gigantic  palm  trees  on  the  shore.  Every 
time  his  oars  dipped  into  the  water  they  brought 
to  the  surface  a  flame  of  fire  ;  yet  amid  all  the 
splendour  of  that  night,  I  could  think  of  nothing 
but  the  sad  old  musician. 

Many  months  passed  and  I  had  quite  forgotten 
the  guslar  of  Ragusa.  Again  I  was  at  the  sea- 
shore ;  but  it  was  the  turbulent  Atlantic — not  the 
sunny  Adriatic ;  Coney  Island — not  Lacroma. 

Many  confusing  strains  of  music  were  in  deadly 
conflict  with  one  another  ;  myriads  of  glowing 
lights  encircled  grotesque  buildings  of  all  de- 
scriptions ;  through  streets  given  over  to  pleas- 
ure, crowded  in  one  day  nearly  as  many  people 
as  there  are  inhabitants  in  all  Dalmatia. 

I  certainly  did  not  think  of  Dalmatia,  until  I 
stood  before  an  "  Oriental  Palace  of  Pleasure," 
in  front  of  which  I  saw  the  man  from  Brooklyn, 


THE  GUSLAR  OF  RAGUSA  .     151 

resplendent  in  a  gorgeous  Oriental  costume, 
"  barking  "  to  the  multitude  the  sensuous  pleas- 
ures which  could  be  enjoyed  within  "for  the 
small  sum  of  one  dime,  only  ten  cents." 

When  he  paused  for  breath,  I  heard  peculiar, 
strange,  and  yet  familiar  music.  Following  the 
sounds,  I  found  on  a  balcony,  in  a  blaze  of 
electric  lights,  the  guslar  of  Ragusa.  When  he 
finished  playing,  he  too  cried :  "  Tenee  cenee, 
onlee  tenee  cenee  1  C-o-m-e  een  !  Only  tenee 
cenee  1 " 


XI 

WHERE  THE  ANGEL  DROPPED  THE  STONES 

PRINCE  NICOLAS  of  Montenegro  does 
not  remember  me,  and  why  should  he? 
It  was  many  years  ago,  and  I  was  one 
of  20,000  guests  who  suddenly  descended  upon 
his  little  capital  of  5,000  inhabitants,  during  its 
national  festivities  in  honour  of  the  Prince  of 
Bulgaria. 

Cetinje's  two  modest  hostelries,  in  which  un- 
der normal  conditions  twenty  strangers  might 
have  found  crude  comforts,  were  packed  from 
cellar  to  garret  with  the  entourage  of  the  royal 
guest.  The  rest  of  us,  mostly  natives  and  a  few 
strangers,  roving  about  the  odd  corners  of 
Europe,  were  sheltered  in  private  homes,  hos- 
pitably thrown  open  by  Cetinje's  citizens,  who 
still  believe  in  hospitality  as  a  virtue,  which  they 
practice  on  all  occasions. 

I  did  not  know  until  the  morning  after  my  ar- 
rival that  my  host  was  the  Minister  to  the  Exte- 
rior. The  Interior,  being  so  small,  needed  no 
minister,  I  suppose.  His  house,  a  rude  stone 
structure,  was  only  a  degree  better  than  that  of 
the  peasant ;  the  bed  was  softer  than  his,  for  it 

152 


The  ANGEL  DROPPED  The  STONES    153 

was  not  the  stone  floor.  The  food  was  practi- 
cally the  same  ;  a  monotonous  diet  of  maize  bread 
and  mutton,  the  staple  food  of  rich  and  poor 
alike,  except  that  the  peasant  eats  only  the  bread 
and  sells  the  mutton. 

To  find  that  my  boots  were  blacked  by  a  rela- 
tive of  the  Minister  to  the  Exterior,  and  that  by 
virtue  of  being  his  guest  I  was  also  to  be  a  guest 
at  the  banquet  given  by  Prince  Nicolas  in 
honour  of  his  princely  visitor,  produced  in  me  no 
little  feverish  excitement ;  revealing  the  fact  that 
I  was  a  mere  mortal,  and  as  much  pleased  by 
my  aristocratic  surroundings  and  the  prospect  of 
royal  favour,  as  if  I  were  not  a  student  of  social 
phenomena  with  a  strong  bias  towards  democ- 
racy. 

It  is  of  no  consequence  to  chronicle  these  facts 
here,  except  that  they  led  to  a  passing  acquaint- 
ance with  the  Prince  and  his  family.  His  young- 
est son  was  then  a  growing  youth  of  exceedingly 
lovable  character.  At  that  time  the  Queen  of 
Italy  was  a  visitor  in  her  father's  simple  home. 
The  Prince  is  a  writer  of  some  ability,  and  I  was 
glad  to  be  able  to  tell  him  that  I  was  familiar 
with  his  contributions  to  Serbic  literature. 

The  royal  favour  accorded  me  stood  me  in 
good  stead ;  for  not  only  could  I  watch  the 
pageant  and  other  festivities  from  a  splendid 
vantage  ground,  but  it  proved  very  helpful  in  my 
journey  through  the  principality,  which  I  traversed 


*54  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

from  Nyegusi  to  Lake  Skutari,  and  from  the  Al- 
banian Alps  to  the  Herzegovina. 

The  country  seemed  like  a  huge  eagle's  nest, 
perched  amid  inhospitable  mountains.  Here  all 
men  were  warriors,  from  the  time  they  were 
weaned  from  their  mother's  breast,  until  they 
sank  into  their  rock-hewn  graves. 

The  women  reared  the  young,  tilled  the  bit  of 
precious  soil  found  among  a  waste  of  boulders, 
and  carried  mutton  carcases  to  the  market  at 
Podgoricza  or  Cattaro,  the  largest  trading  town 
in  Dalmatia.  On  the  return  home,  they  brought 
coffee  and  spring  water,  the  two  luxuries  of  those 
arid  mountain  heights.  These  poor  homes,  al- 
though rarely  better  than  stables,  sheltered  peo 
pie  full  of  heroism,  hospitality,  and  primitive 
social  virtues  ;  as  well  as  a  passionate  hatred  for 
the  "  Schwab,"  their  Austrian  neighbour,  and  the 
Turk,  their  ancient  foe. 

The  men  lived  in  anticipation  of  war,  not  much 
caring  whom  they  fought ;  for  peace  meant  a 
stagnant  poverty,  while  war  held  glory  and  pil- 
lage. 

It  was  the  day  of  the  farewell  festivities  for  the 
Bulgarian  Prince,  that  the  peasant  subjects  of 
Prince  Nicolas  passed  in  review  before  their 
patriarch,  who  was  the  supreme  judge  and  ar- 
biter of  their  fate.  The  menials  kissed  the  hem 
of  his  coat,  while  the  heads  of  different  tribes 
kissed  his  cheek.  Each  man  in  passing  before 


The  ANGEL  DROPPED  The  STONES    155 

his  lord  told  his  troubles  openly,  and  waited  for 
the  word  of  cheer  or  of  judgment. 

With  little  variation  they  all  told  of  utter 
poverty — the  kind  of  poverty  which  meant  that 
from  the  month  of  August  until  the  next  autumn, 
there  would  be  no  bread ;  for  the  crops  had  failed. 
There  was  no  prospect  of  relief,  the  Prince  him- 
self being  poor  and  in  debt ;  and  the  country  had 
no  resources. 

I  proposed  emigration  as  a  remedy,  and  rather 
impatiently  the  Prince  dismissed  the  suggestion, 
saying  that  every  warrior  was  of  value  in  this 
mountain  fastness ;  soldiers  were  its  one  asset, 
and  they  might  at  any  moment  be  needed  by 
their  godmother,  Russia,  if  not  by  himself. 

Soldiers  we  did  not  need,  I  told  him ;  the  war 
with  Spain  was  over,  and  even  during  its  prog- 
ress, we  had  soldiers  to  spare ;  but  if  his  men 
would  learn  to  "  turn  their  spears  into  "  crowbars, 
and  "  their  swords  into  "  shovels  (taking  liberties 
with  a  prophetic  utterance)  they  would  find  op- 
portunity for  work,  if  not  for  valour  ;  for  a  good 
wage,  but  not  for  pillage. 

I  knew  they  would  come  and  they  did.  An 
apostolic  band  of  twelve  men  first ;  seventy  and 
more,  following ;  three  hundred  on  the  next 
steamer,  after  which  a  temporary  check.  The 
three  hundred,  having  violated  the  contract  labour 
law,  were  sent  home. 

Then,  like  a  flood,  too  long  held  back,  came 


156  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

thousands,  scattering  through  the  Alleghanies 
and  the  Middle  Western  plain,  as  far  as  the  Mis- 
souri River,  and  into  California,  where  a  colony  of 
many  hundreds  at  Los  Angeles  is  in  Paradise ;  al- 
though first  they  went  through  many  a  purgatory. 

Ten  years,  and  ten  times  ten  years,  which  in 
Montenegro's  past  were  more  or  less  glorious, 
had  left  the  country  practically  unchanged  ;  ex- 
cept as  the  present  ruler  had  tried  to  root  out 
some  of  its  latent  barbarisms.  Here  Slavic  tra- 
ditions at  their  best  were  immovably  intrenched, 
and  here  were  the  bulwarks  against  the  best  and 
the  worst  in  our  civilization. 

Neither  steam  nor  electricity,  those  destroyers 
of  archaic  simplicity,  had  yet  entered  the  coun- 
try, nor  had  our  vulgarities  of  French  dress  and 
morals  driven  out  the  simple  virtues  or  the  pic- 
turesque national  garb,  worn  by  the  Prince  and 
by  the  peasant. 

On  all  sides,  Montenegro's  neighbours,  the 
Albanians,  Bosnians,  Herzegovinians,  and  even 
her  brother,  Servia,  in  the  lowlands  of  the  old 
cradle  home — had  all  yielded,  in  a  greater  or 
lesser  degree,  to  Mohammedan  influences. 
Montenegro  alone  remained  an  unsealed  fortress, 
in  which  the  crescent  never  supplanted  the  cross  ; 
nor  did  the  horse's  tail  wave  from  its  flag-staff, 
on  which  once  and  forever  had  been  unfurled  the 
victorious  colours — red,  black,  and  white. 

The  dawn  of  the  twentieth  century  found  the 


The  ANGEL  DROPPED  The  STONES    157 

principality  still  Homeric  and  patriarchal,  but  the 
brief  years  since  its  opening  have  been  signifi- 
cant ones.  During  those  years  her  sons  for  the 
first  time  left  "  their  crags  and  unsealed  passes  " 
to  go  out  upon  so  base  an  errand  as  seeking 
work  across  the  Atlantic,  later  to  return  with  the 
booty  of  a  bloodless  conquest. 

About  ten  years  after  my  last  visit  to  Monte- 
negro, I  was  again  journeying  towards  it  upon 
that  serpentine  road  from  whose  every  winding 
the  truly  matchless  bay  can  be  seen,  receding 
with  every  turn,  hemmed  in  more  and  more  by 
the  chalk  cliffs  which  look  like  petrified  clouds. 
Almost  barren  of  verdure  they  are,  but  full  of  an 
awful  majesty ;  until  they  blend  with  the  bay, 
when  one  can  see  beyond  them  the  blue  Adriatic. 
The  ships  upon  her  bosom  are  moved  by  a  gentle 
sirocco,  while  the  islands  on  the  Dalmatian  coast, 
hidden  in  the  shining  green  of  the  olive  and  the 
yellower  tints  of  fig  leaves,  make  patches  of 
colour  which  seem  to  be  floating  away  in  the 
mist  rising  at  noontime  from  the  sea. 

Suddenly  one  turns  northward  and  faces  gray 
stones,  walls  of  stone,  fields  of  stone — nothing 
but  stone — and  that  is  Montenegro.  My  peasant 
driver  told  me  that  when  God  made  the  earth, 
He  saw  that  He  had  made  it  good,  with  the 
exception  of  the  stones,  of  which  there  were  too 
many.  He  called  His  angel  Gabriel  and  told 
him  to  take  a  bag  as  large  as  the  ends  of  the 


i58         THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

four  winds  and  go  down  to  earth,  pick  up  the 
surplus  stones  and  cast  them  into  the  sea. 

The  devil,  who  delighted  in  the  stones  and 
the  trouble  they  would  give  humanity,  flew  after 
the  busy  angel. 

When  Gabriel  had  picked  up  all  the  superflu- 
ous stones  on  earth,  and  was  about  to  drop  them 
into  the  Adriatic,  his  Satanic  Majesty  took  his 
pocket  knife,  cut  a  hole  in  the  angel's  bag,  and  all 
the  stones  dropped  on  to  that  part  of  the  earth 
where  Montenegro  is  situated. 

The  peasant's  story  accounts  for  the  topsy- 
turvy position  of  the  stones ;  now  piled  high  as 
mountains,  then  solid  walls  of  stone,  and,  again, 
huge  boulders  scattered  about,  with  plenty  of 
smaller  ones  between.  There  are  some  fertile 
spots,  especially  the  famous  Brda,  where  flocks 
find  pasture ;  and  there  is  an  occasional  field 
large  enough  for  a  horse  to  turn  with  its  plough. 
Most  of  the  country,  however,  is  barren,  and  it  is 
from  this  bleakest  mountain  region  that  the 
exodus  to  America  has  taken  place. 

At  Nyegusi,  as  usual,  there  was  an  hour's  wait, 
and  a  chance  to  refresh  the  inner  man  with 
cheese  and  coffee.  In  this  primitive  hostelry  one 
noticed  the  first  evidences  of  the  changes  wrought. 
Nyegusi,  the  birthplace  of  the  Prince,  under  the 
shadow  of  the  historic  Lovczin,  has  been  more 
drained  of  its  men  in  these  times  of  peace  than 
ever  it  was  in  time  of  war. 


o   'Z 
Q    £ 


O  s 

&  .2. 

3  C 

£  •& 

g  I 

§  i 


O     o" 
H      on 

CT;        4? 


w  ° 

a,  t> 

a,  '£ 

O  «• 


a   j? 


W 

S  < 


The  ANGEL  DROPPED  The  STONES  159 

When  last  I  passed  through  it,  there  stood  be- 
fore every  one  of  the  wretched  stone  huts  a  giant- 
like figure,  attired  in  his  native  costume,  which, 
according  to  Montenegrin  standards,  was  worth 
a  fortune,  and  did  indeed  represent  its  wearer's 
wealth.  Ancient  and  costly  weapons  protruded 
from  his  belt,  generously  wound  around  his 
portly  body.  Thus  armed,  he  paraded  up  and 
down  the  rocky  streets  of  Nyegusi,  or  lounged  in 
the  village  inn,  smoking  cigarettes  and  drinking 
his  rakit  if  he  had  the  wherewithal. 

At  the  time  of  which  I  write,  the  streets  were 
deserted,  save  for  the  women,  who  bent  beneath 
their  heavy  burdens  of  wood  which  they  bring 
down  from  the  ravines  in  the  Lovczin  mountain. 

Old  men  sat  wearily  on  the  stone  walls  which 
surrounded  their  small  fields,  and  every  one  told 
of  a  son  who  had  gone  "  to  Amerikee." 

One  toothless  woman  could  tell  her  age  only 
approximately,  by  the  number  of  sons  she  had 
borne  ;  and  there  were  eighteen.  Ten  of  them 
were  in  America ;  the  others  had  been  killed  in 
border  warfare. 

In  this  same  town  I  met  a  mother  of  twenty- 
two  sons,  twenty  of  whom  had  lost  their  lives  in 
battle.  The  two  survivors  were  the  innkeepers 
of  Nyegusi.  The  inn  itself  was  the  same  as  when 
first  I  saw  it,  with  its  beaten  earth  floor,  and 
walls  bare,  except  for  the  icon,  a  splendid  bit  of 
Byzantine  workmanship  ;  but  since  I  drank  the 


160  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

excellent  coffee  there,  ten  years  ago,  more  than 
5,000  braves  have  been  under  its  roof,  bound  for 
my  own  country  or  returning  from  it.  Now  the 
room  is  full  of  them,  all  homeward  bound,  spend- 
ing money  far  too  freely  in  drinking  and  gam- 
bling ;  two  vices  which,  although  taken  with  them 
from  their  mountains,  they  bring  back  in  exag- 
gerated form. 

I  must  confess  to  a  sense  of  disappointment 
when  I  saw  them  beside  the  Montenegrin  who 
had  remained  at  home.  The  sombre  dress  of  our 
civilization  was  a  poor  exchange  for  the  brilliant, 
native  costume.  The  hard  labour  the  men  per- 
formed in  America  had  robbed  them  of  their  erect 
and  elastic  forms,  and  they  looked  like  the 
menials  of  their  brothers  who  had  been  keeping 
watch  against  the  "  Schwab,"  in  the  shadow  of 
the  Lovczin. 

The  change  was  not  unlike  that  which  has 
taken  place  in  the  American  Indian  who  left 
the  war-path  to  repair  the  steel  path  of  the  rail- 
road. 

The  men  in  the  inn,  nearly  thirty  of  them,  be- 
longed to  all  parts  of  the  little  realm-,  from  Niksic 
in  the  North  and  Grahova  on  the  Herzegovinian 
border,  to  Cetinje  and  Podgoricza,  its  centre 
They  had  gone  out  in  neighbourhood  groups, 
members  of  one  tribe ;  but,  returning,  had  become 
badly  mixed.  Some  in  the  original  group  had 
failed,  while  others  had  succeeded  ;  some  decided 


The  ANGEL  DROPPED  The  STONES    161 

to  remain  in  America,  others  were  glad  to  come 
home. 

Most  of  those  in  the  inn  had  been  West,  and 
knew  only  the  rigorous  side  of  our  industrial  life, 
and  to  no  European  people  could  the  experience 
have  been  so  trying ;  while  none  could  have  ad- 
justed itself  less  easily  to  it. 

The  complaints  as  registered  in  Cetinje  were 
many,  and  on  the  whole  justified.  They  may  be 
classified  as  follows : 

Cheated  by  Employment  Agencies        .        80% 
Cheated  by  Austrian  boarding-house  keepers  60% 
Money  lost  by  giving  bribes  to  Irish-Amer- 
ican bosses  who  promised  jobs  which 
were  never  given         .         .         .  3&% 

Rough  treatment  by  bosses     .         .         .72% 
Robbed  by  railroad  crews  in  Montana          80% 
"Shanghaied" — made     drunk     and    rail- 
roaded from  St.    Louis  to  Southern 
Kansas  .         .         .         .         .15% 

Robbed   of  money  and  tickets  before  de- 
parture for  home         .  40% 

This  represented  the  dark  side  of  the  experience 
of  the  Montenegrin  immigrant.  The  brighter 
side  cannot  so  easily  be  classified.  As  with 
other  groups,  so  with  those ;  America  meant  an 
enlargement  of  their  horizon.  Most  of  them  had 
earned  money  and  meant  to  buy  land  ;  some  of 
them  had  an  eye  to  the  undeveloped  mineral 
wealth  of  their  country,  and  two  carried  home  en- 
riched lives  through  having  attended  an  evening 


162  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

school,  where  they  had  learned  to  read  and  write 
some  English. 

All  were  still  loyal  sons  of  their  mountain 
home,  and  only  three  of  the  thirty  in  the  inn 
meant  to  try  their  luck  again. 

The  innkeeper  thought  emigration  a  great 
boon,  and  it  was,  to  him ;  for  the  emigrants  all 
passed  through  Nyegusi  whether  they  came  or 
went,  and  that  meant  revenue. 

Externally,  Cetinje,  the  capital,  is  still  the 
same ;  although  there  the  greatest  change  has 
taken  place  since  my  last  visit.  Cetinje  now 
has  a  parliament,  and  its  post-office  officials  have 
something  more  to  do  than  smoke  cigarettes.  Its 
storekeepers  are  enriched  by  the  inflow  of 
money ;  the  women  respond  to  the  new  spirit ; 
for  a  comparatively  large  number  is  going  to 
America,  and  a  few  have  already  gone.  The  men, 
especially  the  old  peasants,  find  this  new  spirit 
most  trying.  One  of  them,  in  a  little  stone  hut 
at  Kolasin,  said  :  "  The  women  come  home  after 
three  years'  absence  and  the  devil  has  got  into 
them.  They  sit  in  my  presence  and  demand  to 
eat  when  I  do  1 

"  What  kind  of  country  is  that  anyway  which 
encourages  such  things  ?  Is  it  a  woman's  coun- 
try?" 

I  met  one  woman  whose  son  I  knew  in  the 
"  States."  He  is  one  of  the  few  that  have  pros- 
pered, and  he  means  to  stay.  His  mother's  lit- 


The  ANGEL  DROPPED  The  STONES    163 

tie  cottage  on  the  outskirts  of  Cetinje  shows 
plainly  the  influence  of  America. 

On  the  walls  hang  many  gaudy  calendars,  and 
a  crayon  portrait  of  her  son,  in  an  elaborate 
frame. 

"  Tell  me,"  she  said,  as  she  pointed  to  a  bulky 
newspaper  printed  in  Scranton,  Pa.,  and  sent  by 
her  son,  as  a  curiosity,  "how  many  weeks 
does  it  take  them  to  read  it?" 

Her  son  sends  her  ten  dollars  every  month, 
which  means  fifty  kronen.  "  Only  the  good 
Princess  has  so  much  money  of  her  own  1 "  the 
proud  mother  said  ;  and  I  am  not  so  sure  that 
even  the  Princess  has  it. 

There  must  be  many  such  huts  ;  for  the  post- 
master told  me  that  $30,000  came  into  this  little 
rocky  nest  in  one  year  ;  more  money  than  passed 
through  the  hands  of  that  postmaster  in  twenty 
preceding  years.  In  a  country  so  impoverished, 
this  money  cannot  help  being  a  blessing. 

It  is  true,  that  after  a  brief  glimpse  of 
Montenegro  I  left  it  with  feelings  decidedly 
mixed  as  to  the  benefits  it  has  derived  from 
emigration.  The  Prince  is  less  a  patriarch  than 
he  was  and  not  so  accessible  to  his  subjects  ;  for 
he  has  felt  the  force  of  a  revolution,  small  but 
significant. 

The  grand  opera  setting  of  the  villages  and 
towns  is  being  destroyed ;  men  no  more  strut 
about  like  stage  heroes,  waiting  for  their  cues. 


164  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

The  picturesque  is  going,  is  almost  gone,  and 
will  go  entirely ;  poverty,  extreme  poverty, 
pinching,  grinding  poverty  is  going  too,  and 
will  soon  disappear.  Men  drink  more  fiery  raki 
and  gamble  more  ;  women  are  beginning  to  lift 
up  their  heads  and  walk  beside  the  men,  not 
behind  them.  I  am  convinced  that  the  relative 
of  the  Minister  to  the  Exterior  would  not  now 
black  my  boots ;  for  which  I  rejoice,  although  the 
old  braves  complain  and  say:  "America  is  a 
woman's  country." 

Montenegro,  hemmed  in  on  three  sides  by 
Austria  and  on  the  other  side  by  Turkey,  and  all 
around  by  poverty,  has  found  an  outlet  and  re- 
lief by  way  of  the  sea.  Progress  has  come 
slowly  and  from  far  away  and  she  must  pay  the 
price  ;  yet  when  all  is  considered,  she  ought  to 
be  glad  to  pay  it. 

In  talking  to  the  postmaster  of  Cetinje,  I  re- 
ferred to  my  driver's  story,  about  the  angel's 
dropping  the  stones  upon  Montenegro,  and 
said  :  "  It  must  have  been  a  poor  sort  of  angel ; 
for  he  didn't  pick  them  up  again." 

"  Ah,  well !  He  is  trying  to  make  up  for  it 
Look  here ; "  and  he  showed  me  advices  from 
New  York  for  1,500  kronen. 

"  If  that  angel  keeps  up  the  good  work,  we 
will  have  a  krone  for  every  stone  that  he  dropped 
on  our  soil.  Don't  you  say  anything  against 
our  angel  1 " 


XII 
"THE  HOLE  FROM  WHICH  YE  WERE  DIGGED" 

IT  was  some  sort  of  saint's  day,  one  of  the 
many ;   this  day,  just  before   the   harvest 
time,   served   at  least  one  useful  purpose. 
It   brought   together   the   latifondistiy  the  land- 
owners, and  the  contadini,  the  labourers,  who,  af- 
ter  mass,  bargained   with  one  another  for  the 
harvest  wage. 

There  was  a  time  when  the  padrone  had  a 
dozen  men  at  his  heels  begging  to  procure  them 
work  ;  but  now  the  tables  are  turned,  and  smartly 
dressed  men  court  these  rough  toilers  of  the 
Abruzzi,  and  are  happy,  when,  over  a  bottle  of 
wine  and  a  hand-grasp,  the  bargain  is  sealed. 

In  less  than  twenty  years  wages  have  increased 
from  sixteen  to  sixty  cents  a  day,  and  the  differ- 
ence in  the  attitude  of  the  two  classes  towards 
each  other  is  correspondingly  great.  The  with- 
drawal from  the  intense  congestion  in  Italy  of 
nearly  2,000,000  toilers  in  the  last  ten  years,  ac- 
counts for  the  change  in  the  economic  condition 
of  the  common  field  labourer  of  that  country. 
No  phase  of  human  relations  has  been  left  unaf- 
fected by  this  remarkable  movement  away  from 
the  home  soil. 

165 


166  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

"  Just  as  you  wish,  Signor,"  I  heard  a  man 
say  to  one  of  the  upper  class.  "  Three  lire  and 
not  a  centesimo  less." 

The  landowner  watched  the  "labourer  closely, 
and  when  he  saw  him  approached  by  an- 
other landowner,  ran  to  him  and  sealed  the 
bargain. 

"  Ah,  Signor  !  Emigration  has  done  this  1 " 
the  labouring  man  said  when  I  entered  into  con- 
versation with  him.  "  There  are  not  men  enough 
left  to  do  the  work,  and  if  it  weren't  for  the  hard 
times  in  America,  I  would  have  charged  him  two 
carini  (about  sixteen  cents)  more  ;  but  there  are 
some  men  back  from  America  who  have  not  done 
so  well,  although  they  too  will  not  hire  out  for 
less  than  three  lire.  They  say  that  in  America 
they  have  received  three  times  as  much." 

The  gentleman  to  whom  I  introduced  myself, 
and  who  was  suspicious  that  I  might  be  in  his 
parts  encouraging  emigration,  took  a  different 
view  of  the  situation. 

"It  is  a  curse,  sir !  Why,  sir,  you  rob  us  of 
our  men ;  of  our  strongest  men,  and  leave  only 
the  aged,  the  women  and  the  children ! 

"  I  have  fields  still  unplbughed,  although  it  is 
June,  and  the  bringing  in  of  my  crops  will  cost 
me  three  times  as  much  as  it  did  ten  years  ago." 

"  Didn't  he  get  a  much  better  price  for  his  pro- 
duce?" I  asked. 

"Yes,  indeed  1    Perhaps   I   am  no  worse  ofi 


"  FROM  WHICH  YE  Were  DIGGED "    167 

financially  than  before  ;  but  worse  than  the  higher 
wage  is  the  changed  attitude  of  the  common  peo- 
ple towards  the  landowner.  Signer,  those  who 
come  back  are  worse  than  the  Socialists !  The 
Socialists  simply  talk  and  argue ;  most  of  our 
common  people  cannot  understand  what  they 
mean.  They  have  always  known  that  God  made 
some  rich  and  some  poor,  they  were  content  with 
their  cheese  and  their  olives ;  but  these  men  who 
come  back  from  America  walk  through  the  streets 
as  if  they  were  our  equals.  They  wear  just  such 
clothing  as  we  do ;  shoes  without  hobnails  and 
starched  shirts  and  collars. 

"  They  no  longer  greet  us  respectfully  as  they 
used  to,  and  the  way  they  spend  money  looks  to 
these  deluded  contadini  as  if  they  had  found  it  in 
the  streets  of  New  York. 

"  Everybody  in  my  town  who  has  anything  to 
sell,  sells  it  or  borrows  from  his  friends  in  Amer- 
ica and  goes  there.  Last  year  over  1,600  went 
out  of  my  town,  which  has  less  than  6,000  inhab- 
itants. The  saints  alone  know  what  will  become 
of  us  !  And  the  worst  of  it  is,  Signer,  that  they 
lose  respect  for  us  1 " 

Travelling  from  Naples  towards  Calabria,  I 
noticed  in  the  second-class  compartment  a  group 
of  Italians  returning  from  America  for  a  visit  to 
their  native  hill  town.  Among  all  the  people  of 
this  class  that  I  had  seen,  these  were  the  most 
remarkable.  They  were  better  dressed  than 


168  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

others,  spoke  English  fluently,  were  cleanly  in 
their  habits  and  travelled  second-class. 

"  Oh,  yes  1  Italy  is  beautiful  1 "  said  one  of 
them,  who  I  afterwards  learned  was  a  stationary 
engineer  at  New  Brunswick,  N.  J.  His  finely 
chiselled  face  showed  his  delight  as  he  watched 
the  landscape. 

"But  America  is  more  beautiful  on  the  insides. 
You  ask  why  ?  I  will  tell  you. 

"  I  was  born  in  a  small  hill  town  of  3,000  in- 
habitants. My  parents  were  poor  labourers  and 
I  was  born  in  a  hole  in  the  wall.  I  wiH  show  you 
the .  wall  when  we  come  to  the  town.  No  win- 
dows, no  chimney,  no  nothing.  Our  goats  and 
pigs  had  another  hole,  smaller  than  ours ;  but 
the  goats  and  pigs  were  not  ours,  they  belonged 
to  the  landlord  and  when  the  pigs  were  killed  we 
got  half.  We  had  just  one  meal  of  the  meat  and 
the  rest  had  to  be  sold  to  those  who  could  afford 
to  eat  it ;  we  couldn't.  It  was  a  great  day  though 
when  we  had  that  taste  of  meat,  and  I  don't  think 
I  have  ever  tasted  such  good  meat  since.  Of 
course  we  had  meat  only  three  or  four  times  a 
year. 

"  My  father  and  mother  both  had  to  work  in 
the  fields.  They  left  the  hole  in  the  wall  at  four 
o'clock  in  the  morning  and  came  back  to  it  at 
seven  in  the  evening.  When  I  was  a  baby,  my 
mother  carried  me  along  on  her  back  ;  later  my 
sister  carried  me  and  I  can't  remember  the  time 


"FROM  WHICH  YE  Were  DIGGED"    169 

when  one  of  my  sisters  didn't  carry  a  baby  out 
into  the  field. 

"  I  worked  from  the  time  I  was  seven  ;  we  all 
worked  when  there  was  work  to  do.  I  never  was 
hungry  when  the  melons  and  the  figs  were  ripe  ; 
but  I  never  remember  having  eaten  as  much 
bread  as  I  wanted.  I  remember  I  wanted  to  be 
older  than  I  was,  for  the  children  got  about  an 
inch  more  bread  for  every  year,  as  they  grew 
older. 

"I  went  to  school  to  the/#afo?,  and  he  taught 
me  the  Pater  Noster  and  the  Ave  Maria  and  just 
enough  writing  to  sign  my  name.  When  I  was 
fourteen  years  old,  an  uncle  who  lived  in  New 
York  sent  money  to  my  father  and  mother  to 
come  over.  Never  can  I  forget  when  that  letter 
came.  I  nearly  went  crazy.  I  ran  around  to 
every  hole  in  the  wall  and  called  out :  '  We  are 
going  to  America !  We  are  going  to  America ! ' 

"  My  father  was  crazy,  too ;  for  he  gave  the 
letter-man  half  a  lira  for  bringing  him  such  a 
letter  and  reading  to  him  the  good  news.  Every- 
body in  the  town  knew  of  our  good  fortune ;  for 
the  letter-man  told  all  those  to  whom  we  could 
not  speak,  because  they  were  above  us.  When 
we  went  to  Naples  I  thought  I  was  going  to 
heaven,  and  on  the  ship,  in  spite  of  seasickness, 
I  was  happy ;  because  for  the  first  time  in  my 
life  I  had  enough  bread  to  eat. 

"  I  can't  tell  you  how  I  felt  when  we  came  to 


170  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

New  York  ;  but  at  Ellis  Island  they  turned  all 
my  joy  into  weeping.  Two  of  the  younger 
children  had  eye  disease  and  they  wanted  to 
send  all  of  us  back.  My  uncle  said  he  would 
take  care  of  us  older  children,  so  they  let  us  in 
and  sent  father  and  mother  and  the  younger 
ones  back.  It  was  terribly  sad  and  father  and 
mother  cried  ;  but  although  I  too  cried,  I  felt 
very  happy  because  I  would  not  have  to  return 
to  Italy.  We  promised  them  to  come  back  and 
here  we  are." 

These  then  were  the  older  children,  three  sons 
and  one  daughter,  who  had  been  admitted  to  their 
heaven  and  were  now  coming  home  to  thefadre 
and  madre  who  had  lived  in  the  hole  in  the  wall. 

"  What  do  you  think  of  emigration  ?  " 

The  young  woman  answered :  "  Signor,  it 
T-vorks  like  a  miracle  !  I  used  to  pray  many  a 
time,  when  I  went  to  sleep,  that  the  good  saints 
would  work  a  miracle  and  wake  me  in  another 
world,  where  I  could  wear  real  stockings  and 
ribbons,  and  now  my  prayer  is  answered  and  the 
miracle  has  happened." 

Indeed  it  was  a  miracle.  "Bessie,"  as  the 
brothers  called  her,  was  transformed  and  trans- 
figured. She  was  more  "  stylish  "  than  the  land- 
owner's wife  who  travelled  in  the  next  compart- 
ment, and  I  feel  sure  that  her  gown  cost  more 
than  that  of  a  certain  American  woman  who 
shared  with  me  the  pleasures  of  the  journey 


"FROM  WHICH  YE  Were  DIGGED"    171 

Bessie  was  engaged  to  be  married  to  a  country- 
man of  hers,  who  is  head  gardener  in  a  cemetery 
in  one  of  New  York's  suburbs. 

"When  we  are  married  we  will  live  in  a 
cottage  all  our  own,  Signer,  at  the  edge  of  that 
beautiful  cemetery  ;  six  rooms  it  has  and  a  bath 
room  1 " 

A  miracle  indeed  !  From  the  hole  in  the  wall 
to  a  six-room  cottage. 

Of  course  this  group  is  not  typical.  These 
people  went  to  school  in  America  during  their 
youth.  The  boys  went  to  night  school  in  New 
York  and  the  girl  went  to  the  public  school; 
they  had  entered  profitable  trades.  Stone-cut- 
ting, engineering  and  dressmaking. 

What  was  perfectly  normal  in  their  history 
was  the  effect  that  their  going  away  has  had 
upon  the  town  from  which  they  came. 

Does  the  father  live  in  the  hole  in  the  wall  ? 
No  indeed.  They  sent  home  money  enough  to 
build  him  a  house  and  buy  about  fifteen  acres  of 
land.  The  children  at  home  were  all  sent  to 
school.  Yes,  times  have  changed.  All  the 
children  in  that  town  are  sent  to  school;  for 
the  immigrant  father  writes  to  his  wife :  "  Let 
the  children  learn  how  to  read  and  write.  We 
who  cannot,  have  to  remain  beasts  of  burden, 
while  those  who  can,  rule  over  us." 

My  travelling  companions  grew  greatly  ex- 
cited as  the  train  drew  near  their  home.  They 


172  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

collected  their  numerous  packages  and  then 
looked  longingly  at  the  town,  perched  upon  a 
high  hill  and  crowned  by  a  magnificent  castle. 

"  Look,  Signer,  look !  You  see  that  wall,  the 
old  city  wall  ?  You  see  those  holes  ?  I  was  born 
in  one  of  them ! "  Tears  stood  in  Bessie's  eyes. 
No  doubt  she  thought  of  the  six-room  cottage 
and  the  miracle. 

The  station,  in  the  shadow  of  the  town,  was 
much  like  other  such  stations.  There  was  the 
usual  donkey  cart.  Pompous  officials  bustled 
about  and  a  few  carabinieri  walked  up  and 
down,  proud  of  their  fuss  and  feathers.  The 
padre  and  madre  were  there,  and  a  throng  of 
brothers  and  sisters  and  relatives,  who  greeted 
the  travellers  with  noisy  and  affectionate  saluta- 
tions. 

Bessie's  madre  held  her  at  arm's  length  at 
first,  as  if  to  be  sure  that  this  fine  Signorina  was 
really  the  little  girl  she  left  behind  in  New  York 
twelve  years  ago.  Ah,  me !  It  was  a  love- 
hungry  heart  to  which  Bessie  was  pressed.  And 
the  boys !  What  pride  shone  on  the  father's 
face !  Any  father  might  be  proud  of  them,  and 
I  was  prouder  than  the  father. 

"  See  what  America  does  for  your  men ! "  I 

•  cried  to  a  portly  gentleman  who  stood  beside  us 

at  the  window,  watching  the  interesting  scene. 

He  did  not  answer;    for  the  train  puffed  and 

screeched,  and  the  cars  lurched  as  they  were 


"FROM  WHICH  YE  Were  DIGGED"   173 

drawn  around  the  curves.  For  a  long  time  we 
could  see  the  donkey  cart  piled  high  with  bag- 
gage, the  happy  people  following  it. 

The  train  came  closer  and  closer  to  the  walls 
of  that  ancient  town,  and  on  its  southern  side  we 
saw  again  the  holes  in  the  wall,  swarms  of  little 
children,  a  gray,  tired  donkey  and  picturesque 
dirt  and  confusion.  At  sight  of  those  holes  in 
the  wall,  I  repeated  my  remark. 

"  See  what  America  does  for  your  men !  " 

"  Ah  1 "  replied  the  gentleman,  "  you  see  only 
one  side  of  it ;  the  bright  side.  There  is  a  dark 
side  to  emigration,  as  there  is  to  an  olive  leaf. 
We  have  given  you  nearly  two  million  of  our 
best  men,  to  do  your  dirty  and  dangerous  work." 

"  Yes,"  I  replied  ;  "  but  we  pay  them  a  decent 
wage ;  more  wages  in  one  year  than  you  pay 
them  in  ten." 

It  was  this  remark,  the  sight  of  those  holes  in 
the  wall,  and  the  vision  of  that  six-room  cottage 
in  America,  which  set  me  to  striking  the  balance 
for  Italy,  the  country  most  affected  by  the  good 
and  ill  of  immigration. 

Italy  has  given  to  America  for  shorter  or 
longer  periods  nearly  two  and  one-half  millions 
of  men,  for  whose  labour  we  have  paid  her  a  fair 
wage.  At  least  two  million  dollars  annually  to 
every  one  of  the  provinces  from  which  we  have 
recruited  this  army  of  men. 

While  not  all  the  money  will  remain  in  Italy, 


174  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

most  of  it  has  already  been  invested  in  land.  In 
1906,  there  were  at  least  50,000  land  sales  made, 
and  much  of  the  land  will  become  doubly  pro- 
ductive as  a  result  of  the  extreme  care  which  will 
be  given  it  by  this  landless  class,  which  has  sud- 
denly gained  its  foothold. 

The  rise  in  wages  which  is  not  far  from  sixty 
per  cent,  is  a  distinct  benefit  to  the  whole  coun- 
try ;  for  a  living  wage  means  adequate  consump- 
tion and  increased  production.  While  in  some 
provinces  there  has  been  a  dearth  of  labour, 
Italy  is  rather  remarkable  in  that  there  is  no  dan- 
ger of  its  being  depopulated,  and  economically, 
the  entire  country  is  the  gainer  through  emigration. 

I  have  heard  many  complaints,  especially  in 
Italy,  that  we  make  Socialists  and  Anarchists 
out  of  their  once  docile  peasantry.  The  facts 
are  these.  Crime  has  decreased  in  all  districts 
affected  by  emigration  ;  which  however  does  not 
prove  that  the  criminal  classes  have  moved  to 
America.  There  are  other  reasons.  First,  im- 
proved economic  conditions  have  removed  the 
causes  for  many  crimes.  Second,  much  crime 
was  due  to  the  uncontrolled  passions  and  undis- 
ciplined characters  of  the  peasantry ;  and  the 
sojourn  in  America  has  given  to  many  of  them 
the  power  of  self-control. 

That  Calabria  in  Sicily  reports  a  reduction  of 
about  forty  per  cent  in  crimes  against  the  per- 
son, is  certainly  significant 


"FROM  WHICH  YE  Were  DIGGED"    175 

Again,  the  privileged  classes  in  Italy  and  other 
European  countries  naturally  look  askance  at  the 
spirit  of  independence  which  the  men  bring  back 
with  them.  Much  as  we  may  deplore  with  the 
aristocracy  the  fact  that  the  peasant  has  lost  his 
fine  manners,  we  can  but  believe  that,  on  the 
whole,  the  loss  of  docility  and  the  gain  in  in- 
dependence are  a  splendid  exchange  and  of  un- 
told benefit  to  all  concerned. 

Some  day,  Democracy  may  teach  her  children 
the  art  of  polished  manners ;  let  us  hope  that  it 
may  not  be  at  the  loss  of  the  democratic  spirit. 
That  the  peasant  looks  his  master  straight  in  the 
face  and  does  not  cringe  ;  that  he  demands  fair 
treatment,  a  comfortable  yoke  and  no  pricking 
with  the  goad,  are  as  much  benefit  to  Italy  and 
Austro-Hungary,  as  they  are  cause  for  pride  to 
those  of  us  who  believe  that  America  has  a  mis- 
sion to  fulfill  in  the  world. 

If  the  Italian  has  really  lost  his  good  manners, 
we  have  given  him  in  exchange  a  spirit  of  in- 
dependence which,  I  admit,  is  sometimes  a  little 
in  need  of  pruning,  and  with  it,  a  yearning  for 
better  things  and  the  possibility  of  its  realization. 

Public  education  in  Italy  has  received  an 
impetus  directly  traceable  to  the  returned  immi- 
grant, who  saw  its  value.  He  was  a  beast  of 
burden  because  he  knew  nothing.  The  men  who 
were  educated  had  wealth,  leisure  and  all  that 
was  denied  him  and  his  children. 


176  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

If  ignorance  is  removed  from  the  common  peo- 
ple of  Italy,  especially  from  those  of  the  Southern 
provinces,  she  can  well  afford  to  pay  double  the 
price  she  has  paid,  whatever  that  price  may  be. 

It  is  also  charged  against  the  returned  immi- 
grant, that  he  spreads  sedition  by  bringing  home 
strange  religious  ideas. 

"  Signer,"  said  a  priest  to  me  in  the  Campagna, 
"  a  man  came  home  who  had  been  in  America  a 
few  years  ;  an  ignorant,  stupid  fellow,  and  when 
he  came,  he  invited  his  neighbours  to  his  house. 
Not  to  treat  them  with  wine,  as  you  might 
think ;  but  to  preach  to  them.  Think  of  the  im- 
pudence of  the  man !  A  common  man,  un- 
educated and  not  a  priest  1 

"  And  the  people  flocked  to  hear  hjm  !  One 
day  shortly  after  that,  there  came  a  real  American 
and  he  preached  to  them  and  they  sang.  I 
could  hear  them  singing,  Signor,  while  I  was  say- 
ing mass.  The  tunes  kept  going  around  on  the 
tongues  of  the  people  and  a  few  months  after, 
they  began  building  a  church.  They  call  it  the 
1  Methodisto '  church. 

"  Tell  me,  what  heresy  do  they  teach  ?  My 
flock  is  divided  ;  the  women  are  crazy  over  this 
new  doctrine  and  they  gather  the  little  children 
and  teach  them  to  sing  these  heretical  songs." 

Undoubtedly,  a  new  element  of  friction  has 
been  introduced  into  the  solidary,  religious  life  of 
the  nation  ;  but  it  is  equally  true  that,  in  most  of 


"FROM  WHICH  YE  Were  DIGGED"    177 

the  towns  of  Italy,  destructive  ideas  have  long 
been  at  work  and  have  weaned  many  peasants, 
especially  the  men,  from  the  Mother  Church, 
leaving  them  in  an  anarchical  attitude  towards 
Church  and  State. 

The  new  religious  ideals,  which  are  largely 
the  ideals  of  Protestantism  while  also  acting 
destructively,  have,  after  all,  large  constructive 
powers,  and,  on  the  whole,  are  of  undoubted  bene- 
fit. It  is  the  undisputed  testimony  of  impartial  ob- 
servers, that  the  Sectarians  come  home  "cleaner" 
than  others,  that  almost  without  exception  they 
insist  upon  temperance  and  chastity,  and  that 
they  encourage  a  sane,  intellectual  activity, 

I  have  given  concrete  examples  of  this  in 
other  countries ;  but  in  Italy  these  examples 
could  be  multiplied.  I  do  not  know  of  a  single 
instance  where  the  introduction  of  vital  religious 
ideals  has  not  done  more  good  than  harm. 

The  work  of  Rev.  Luigi  Lo  Perfido,  a  Baptist 
minister,  is  somewhat  exceptional,  yet  in  the 
main,  typical.  He  has  introduced  into  the  town 
of  Matera  a  really  constructive,  liberal,  religious 
movement. 

This  includes,  in  addition  to  the  simple  church 
services,  a  cooperative  system  which  has  large 
economic  consequences.  He  has  made  his 
church  a  social  and  literary  centre  besides  keep- 
ing it  a  spiritual  force  of  acknowledged  value. 

The  Church  in  Italy  may  regard  as  a  menace 


iy8  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

this  spirit  of  the  Reformation,  which  it  thought 
dead ;  but  the  Church  itself  cannot  fail  to  be 
stimulated  by  the  introduction  v  of  the  leaven. 
The  Mother  Church  will,  perhaps,  have  to  bestir 
herself  to  hold  the  people,  by  offering  them 
something  better  \han.festas  and  processions. 

Many  observers  complain  that  in  Italian  towns 
especially,  emigration  has  left  too  great  a  burden 
upon  the  women,  and  that  their  economic  and 
social  condition  is  worse  than  before.  This  is 
partially  true,  but  is  only  temporary.  The  full 
truth  is,  that  woman  is  being  benefited  most  by 
these  great  changes,  although  she  now  suffers 
most.  Just  as  the  contadino  in  Italy  or  the 
nadelnik  in  Hungary  has  been  freed  from  the 
oppression  of  his  masters,  by  emigration ;  so  the 
woman  in  Italy  will  be  freed  from  the  oppression 
which  she  is  suffering  from  her  "  liege  lord  "  who, 
especially  among  the  peasant  classes  affected  by 
immigration,  is  always  at  his  worst  in  his  rela- 
tion to  his  wife. 

If  there  is  one  complaint  against  the  returned 
immigrant  which  is  louder  than  others,  it  is  that 
the  woman  who  has  been  in  America  is  spoiled 
and  that  she  is  a  mischief  maker  among  the 
other  women,  who  are  apt  pupils. 

While  I  do  not  anticipate  that  the  peasant 
women  of  Southern  Europe  will  demand  suf- 
frage, they  are  beginning  to  demand  a  voice  in 
the  affairs  of  the  household ;  which  has  ever 


179 

been  their  right,  which  has  long  been  denied 
them  and  which  certainly  does  not  indicate  that 
they  are  spoiled.  Neither  is  there  danger  of 
their  being  spoiled ;  and  it  is  more  than  prob- 
able that  the  women  of  Italy  as  well  as  of  other 
immigrant  centres,  are  as  much  benefited  as  the 
men,  if  not  more  than  they. 

After  seeing  the  hole  in  the  wall  in  which 
Bessie  and  her  brothers  were  born,  and  after 
looking  at  the  matter  from  all  sides,  I  can  still 
say,  and  with  firmer  conviction  than  before : 
"So  far  as  my  observation  goes,  I  feel  certain 
that  emigration  has  been  of  inestimable  eco- 
nomic and  ethical  value  to  the  three  great 
monarchies  chiefly  concerned,  namely :  Italy, 
Austro-Hungary  and  Russia.  It  has  withdrawn 
inefficient  labour  and  has  returned  it  capable 
of  more  and  better  work ;  it  has  lifted  the 
status  of  the  peasantry  to  a  degree  which 
could  not  have  been  achieved  even  by  a 
revolution ;  it  has  stimulated  the  neglected 
masses,  lifted  them  to  a  higher  standard  of 
living  and  has  implanted  new  and  vital  ideals." 

The  hole  in  the  wall  in  which  Bessie  and  her 
brother  were  born  brought  to  my  mind  anew 
the  prophetic  injunction :  "  Look  unto  the  rock 
whence  ye  were  hewn,  and  the  hole  of  the  pit 
whence  ye  were  digged,"  and  aroused  in  me  the 
spirit  of  humility ;  an  attitude  of  mind  essential 
for  the  appreciation  of  all  the  problems  and  op- 


i8o  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

portunities  arising  from  the  presence  in  our 
country  of  these  "lesser  folk." 

This  attitude  of  mind  ought  not  to  be  a  diffi- 
cult one  for  the  average  American  to  attain ;  be- 
cause most  of  his  ancestors  came  out  of  such  holes 
in  the  wall — some  better,  some  worse. 

Even  those  of  whom  we  no  longer  think  as 
immigrants,  but  proudly  call  our  forefathers, 
who  came  long  ago,  came  from  good,  plain, 
peasant  stock ;  not  blue  blooded,  but  of  virile 
red  blood. 

For  this  we  should  be  deeply  grateful ;  al- 
though we  are  likely  to  forget  it,  and  also  willing 
to  forget  it,  I  fear. 

Recently  I  travelled  with  a  friend  and  his  wife. 
The  gentleman,  a  professional  man  of  high 
standing,  was  going  on  a  pilgrimage  to  his 
ancestral  village  in  Germany.  The  wife  went 
there  in  the  firm  conviction  that  the  home  of  his 
parents  must  have  been  some  ancient  castle ;  for 
her  husband  was  a  noble  fellow  indeed. 

When  we  found  the  place  where  he  was  born, 
it  was  a  cow-stable  and  looked  as  if  it  had  been 
none  too  good  for  that  purpose,  even  in  its  palmy 
days,  and  my  friend  discovered  that  his  parents 
were  peasants,  so  poor  that  they  were  sent  to 
America  at  the  expense  of  the  town.  Neverthe- 
less, he  and  his  wife  are  cultured  Americans  and 
their  children  are  graduates  of  our  best  colleges 
and  universities. 


"FROM  WHICH  YE  Were  DIGGED"    181 

Not  long  ago,  in  travelling  from  the  East  to 
the  West,  my  neighbour  in  the  coach,  a  young 
man  of  evident  good  breeding,  complained  bit- 
terly at  the  presence  of  some  Russian  Jewish  im- 
migrants. He  hated  them  all,  he  said ;  and  had 
no  use  for  them. 

I  looked  into  his  face,  and  beneath  the  ruddy 
skin  and  dark,  wide  open  eyes,  saw  that  which 
only  the  initiated  can  readily  detect — the  racial 
origin.  "  May  I  ask  your  name  ?  "  His  name 
was  McElwynne,  and  his  parents  were  English  ; 
but  before  I  had  done  with  him  I  knew  that  they 
had  come  from  Russia,  that  their  name  was 
Levyn  and  that  he  was  a  Russian  Jew  but  one 
generation  removed  from  the  steerage. 

Quite  unintentionally,  I  once  almost  broke  the 
heart  of  a  woman  in  fashionable  society.  She 
pronounces  her  name  with  a  French  accent,  and 
I  translated  it  into  Slavic ;  in  that  language  it 
means  a  common  garden  tool,  which  proves  her 
husband  to  be  of  peasant  origin. 

The  sight  of  the  hole  in  the  wall  in  Italy,  and 
of  the  wretched  huts  in  Hungary  and  Poland, 
has  quickened  my  sympathies  with  the  people 
who  come  out  of  them.  Even  so  our  fathers  and 
mothers  went  forth,  driven  by  hunger  and  dire 
need,  drawn  by  the  dream  of  better  things  and 
sustained  by  a  simple  and  devout  faith. 

After  all,  we  are  brothers.  Born  out  of  the 
womb  of  poverty,  nourished  by  coarse  fare, 


182  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

taught  in  the  hard  school  of  labour  and  saved 
from  wretchedness  by  the  same  good  providence. 

More  and  more  we  shall  grow  into  one  another's 
likeness,  and  that  of  God,  as  all  have  more  bread, 
better  air,  cleaner  homes,  good  books  and  an  un- 
obstructed view  into  heaven. 

For  this,  "  Praise  ye  the  Lord,  kings  and  all 
people ;  princes  and  all  judges  of  the  earth  1 " 

Praise  Him  ye  Irish  and  Scotch ! 
Praise  Him  ye  English  and  Welsh  ! 
Praise  Him  ye  Germans  and  French  ! 
Praise  Him  ye  Slavs  and  ye  Latins  ! 
Praise  Him  ye  Gentiles  and  Jews  ! 

"  Let  everything  that  hath  breath  praise  the 
Lord  1  Praise  ye  the  Lord  1 " 


PART  II 
With  the  Incoming  Tide 


XIII 
PROBLEMS  OF  THE  TIDE 

THE  1,200  steerage  passengers  who  sailed 
for  the  United  States  early  in  Novem- 
ber, 1908,  on  the  steamship  America,  of 
the  Hamburg-American  Line,  were  the  advance 
guard  of  the  vast  armies  of  men  which  were  wait- 
ing for  the  election  of  Mr.  Taft  to  the  presidency. 

That  to  them,  was  synonymous  with  the  return 
of  good  times ;  but  before  those  good  times  had 
a  chance  to  prove  themselves  identical  with  those 
which  took  sudden  flight  over  a  year  ago,  the 
steamers  of  all  lines  were  assured  their  full  num- 
ber of  steerage  passengers. 

When  the  first  shipload  of  them  sailed  into 
New  York  harbour,  its  humble  passengers  were 
hailed  as  the  harbingers  of  the  prosperity  which 
was  being  anxiously  awaited  by  rich  and  poor ; 
by  native  and  foreign  born ;  by  the  citizens  of 
New  York  and  Budapest  and  by  the  people  of 
Chicago  and  Spalato. 

We,  in  the  United  States,  have  alternated  be- 
tween fear  because  so  many  immigrants  came, 
and  regret  because  so  many  went  away  ;  but  the 
recent  influx  brought  joy  to  all,  because  the  com- 

'85 


1 86  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

ing  again  of  so  many,  indicated  the  return  of 
good  times. 

For  our  good  or  ill,  for  what  is  better  than 
mere  good  times,  and  for  worse  than  financial 
depression  or  economic  problems,  these  strangers 
of  all  races  and  nations  come  and  go,  helping  to 
make  our  history  and  shape  our  destiny. 

From  the  beginning,  our  history  has  in  a  large 
degree  been  determined  by  the  migratory  move- 
ments of  larger  or  smaller  groups  from  the  Old 
World,  and  unless  we  have  idealized  these  move- 
ments overmuch,  those  groups  which  came,  un- 
conscious of  the  gold  and  the  iron  slumbering  in 
our  hills — which  came  for  "  conscience'  sake  " — 
those  groups  have  affected  our  history  most  fun- 
damentally if  not  most  permanently. 

Pilgrims,  Puritans,  Huguenots,  Quakers  and 
German  Pietists  certainly  made  history.  They 
sailed  the  treacherous  seas  and  marched  into  the 
pathless  wilderness,  driven  by  something  higher 
than  the  mere  necessity  to  sustain  life. 

Subsequently  came  other  Germans,  the  Irish, 
Scotch  and  Scandinavians.  They  came  prima- 
rily because  of  economic  distress  in  the  home-land ; 
yet  even  among  those  were  many  groups  which 
came  because  they  were  dreamers  of  dreams,  and 
sought  "  a  city  whose  builder  and  maker  is  God." 

In  one  of  our  Western  states  are  two  large 
communities,  one  from  Holland  and  one  from 
Germany  ;  both  are  late  comers  to  this  Western 


PROBLEMS  OF  THE  TIDE         187 

world.  One  of  them  has  built  itself  into  a 
rather  typical  Western  town  and  the  other  is  the 
one  successful  example  of  a  religious  community 
in  this  country.  Both  these  groups  left  prosper- 
ous homes  in  the  Old  World  to  seek  a  place 
where  they  might  worship  God  according  to  the 
dictates  of  their  conscience  ;  and  all  this  hap- 
pened in  the  latter  part  of  the  nineteenth  century, 
at  the  very  zenith  of  our  material  development 

Large  and  influential  groups  of  these  seekers 
after  God  may  be  found  throughout  the  length 
and  breadth  of  our  country ;  although  they  may 
now  come  out  of  the  heart  of  Russia,  like  the 
Molicani  in  Los  Angeles,  California,  they  come 
moved  by  the  same  impulses  which  drew  the 
Pilgrims  to  Plymouth  and  the  Germans  to 
Pennsylvania,  and  they  exhibit  the  same  charac- 
teristics. 

In  these  days  most  people  believe  that  when 
the  last  Irishman  has  arrived  from  Dublin,  the 
Old  World  will  be  drained  of  her  best  people, 
and  we  look  upon  a  certain  boundary  line  in 
Europe  as  the  division  between  good  people  and 
bad ;  yet  from  beyond  that  line  come  pilgrim 
bands  in  much  larger  numbers  than  the  casual 
observer  knows,  and  they  are  bent  upon  the 
same  holy  errand  as  that  which  brought  those 
who  came  generations  ago.  In  fact  the  Reforma- 
tion with  its  religious  and  political  consequences 
is  making  itself  felt  at  this  late  day  in  these 


188  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

migratory  movements.  Large  groups  driven  to 
the  plains  of  the  Volga  or  the  Danube  are  now 
coming  to  the  United  States  ;  with  narrow  doc- 
trines, it  is  true,  but  with  deep  convictions,  and 
the  churches  of  the  Reformation  feel  this  current 
in  the  measure  in  which  they  have  kept  them- 
selves spiritually  alert.  Yet  one  must  admit  that 
the  vast  majority  of  those  who  come  is  driven 
by  no  higher  motive  than  the  economic  pressure. 
Yet  it  is  not  always  poverty  which  drives  them 
from  their  village  homes  to  our  cities  or  from 
their  quiet  fields  to  our  noisy  shops. 

They  are  no  poorer  to-day  than  they  were  fifty 
years  ago  when  no  one  thought  of  moving  even 
a  league  from  the  village  in  which  he  was  born. 
They  are  simply  obeying  an  impulse  which  is  ex- 
tending to  the  very  edges  of  civilization ;  an  im- 
pulse created  by  discontent.  Everywhere  men 
are  beginning  to  believe  that  God  meant  them  to 
enjoy  the  good  things  of  life  now,  and  that  all 
men,  not  merely  a  privileged  class,  should  be  able 
to  enjoy  them. 

Nothing  ever  quite  so  rudely  shattered  the 
idea  of  the  stability  of  wealth  as  the  discovery  of 
America  and  the  subsequent  migrations  there  of 
different  groups  from  different  portions  of  Europe. 

Wealth  had  been  in  a  measure  entailed,  the 
possession  of  a  class ;  and  poverty  was  meekly 
accepted  as  the  divine  apportionment  to  the 
mass  of  men.  When  it  was  rumoured  that  gold 


PROBLEMS  OF  THE  TIDE         189 

lay  hidden  in  the  mountains  across  the  sea,  that 
no  key  was  needed  to  gain  access  to  its  hiding- 
place,  and  that  it  would  belong  to  any  one  who 
dared,  the  myth  was  quickly  dissolved.  Poor 
men  came  and  got  their  share  of  gold — not  so 
often  by  finding  it  as  by  toiling  for  it. 

Further  and  further  the  truth  travelled  ;  slowly, 
as  is  the  way  of  truth  ;  until  to-day,  scarcely  any- 
where is  the  prevailing  social  order  or  economic 
status  accepted  as  fixed.  The  greater  the 
number  of  men  returning  from  America,  even 
with  very  moderate  wealth,  the  more  the  discon- 
tent spreads,  and  men  seek  the  place  where  this 
change  may  soonest  be  effected. 

They  will  continue  to  come  until  the  economic 
opportunities  at  home  are  appreciably  nearer 
those  they  find  in  this  strange  land.  Although 
at  present  there  is  no  European  country  or 
province  from  which  there  has  not  been  some 
emigration,  there  are  people  who  have  only  be- 
gun to  seek  this  adjustment ;  therefore,  the  force 
of  the  tide  towards  America  is  destined  to  in- 
crease rather  than  decrease,  and  an  annual  influx 
of  2,000,000,  more,  rather  than  less,  may  be  ex- 
pected during  the  next  decade. 

No  matter  from  where  the  groups  come,  they 
will  present  an  economic  problem  to  those  who, 
in  a  measure  at  least,  have  risen  to  a  higher 
standard  of  living.  Each  group  will  fear  that  the 
younger  and  often  cruder  body  may  lessen  its 


190  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

chances  of  maintaining  that  standard.  The  Ger- 
mans, the  Irish  and  the  Norse  people  were  not 
received  with  open  arms  by  those  who  preceded 
them,  even  those  of  related  race  or  nationality. 
This  was  especially  true  during  the  years  when 
war,  famine  and  persecution  brought  them  in 
large  numbers. 

Now,  in  turn,  all  these  look  askance  at  the  Jew, 
the  Slav  and  the  Italian  ;  while  they,  like  the  rest, 
are  ready  to  close  the  doors  to  the  vast  hordes 
about  to  move  onward,  and,  as  they  believe,  up- 
ward. It  is  also  interesting  to  note,  that  among 
these  late  comers,  there  are  decided  ideas  as  to 
who  are  desirable  immigrants,  and  who  are  not. 

The  Slav,  if  he  is  a  Pole,  would  exclude  his 
cousin,  the  Slovak,  and  both  are  united  in  think- 
ing that  the  Ruthenian  is  a  rather  inferior  being; 
while  the  Ruthenian  would  debar  the  Jews, 
Servians  and  Croatians  from  the  economic  bene- 
fits of  the  land  of  his  adoption. 

Until  now  there  has  been  room  for  all,  and  they 
have  not  presented  a  serious  economic  menace, 
except  as  they  have  intensified  the  general 
problem  of  labour.  Each  group,  driven  from  the 
lower  and  coarser  tasks,  has  risen  from  mine  to 
shop,  from  shop  to  store,  and  from  the  store  into 
every  avenue  of  business  and  professional  life. 

Thus  far  all  have  been  crowded  up  and  not 
many  have  been  crowded  out.  No  considerable 
groups  of  native  Americans  are  bewailing  the 


PROBLEMS  OF  THE  TIDE         191 

fact  that  they  cannot  find  work  in  the  mines ; 
nor  would  large  numbers  desire  to  go  back  to 
them  from  their  safer  toiling  places. 

The  Irish  are  not  mourning  because  they  are 
not  working  on  sections,  nor  would  they  be 
willing  to  leave  their  beats  and  office  chairs 
from  which  they  are  ruling,  not  only  those  of  us 
who  came  after  them,  but  a  fair  share  of  those 
who  came  before  them.  They  do  not  care  to 
go  back  to  the  track,  the  pickax  and  the  shovel. 

Without  the  Slav,  the  Italian  and  the  Magyar, 
that  which  we  call  our  industrial  development 
would  have  been  impossible.  This  development 
does  not  lessen  the  economic  problem,  it  intensi- 
fies it ;  but  it  cannot  be  proved  that  no  economic 
problem  would  exist  if,  instead  of  Slav  and  Latin, 
the  Teutonic  races  were  dominant  in  this  move- 
ment. In  that  case  I  believe  the  problem  would 
be  more  difficult  of  solution. 

Let  me  again  frankly  admit  that  I  do  not  re- 
gard most  immigrant  groups  of  the  present 
type  as  a  serious  menace  to  the  other  groups,  or 
to  the  whole  economic  life,  provided  they  are 
needed  to  do  the  work  for  which  they  seem  best 
fitted.  At  present  this  is  still  a  matter  of  proper 
distribution  and  presents  no  such  serious  diffi- 
culty as  is  commonly  supposed  ;  for  the  immi- 
grant will  go  wherever  he  is  wanted  and  a  fair 
wage  is  assured  him.  Nor  is  he  quite  so  eager 
to  herd  in  cities  as  we  imagine,  and  no  com- 


192  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

munity  need  be  without  an  adequate  supply  o! 
labourers,  if  they  are  needed  for  hard,  crude 
labour.  There  is  no  work  so  hard  or  so  danger- 
ous that  the  immigrant  will  not  attempt  it. 

Like  their  forerunners  in  the  migratory  move- 
ment of  European  races,  the  present  immigrants 
respond  quickly  to  the  American  higher  stand- 
ards of  living,  and  in  many  cases  much  more 
quickly  than  some  of  the  older  groups  re- 
sponded. 

When  we  speak  of  the  horrors  of  the  East  Side 
of  New  York,  the  crowded  Ghetto  and  Mulberry 
Street  with  its  Italian  filth,  we  forget  the  days 
when  the  Irish  possessed  the  land,  "  squatting " 
wherever  they  could,  and  living  in  wretched 
huts ;  when  the  American  used  to  sing : 

"  The  pig  was  in  the  parlour,  and  that  was  Irish  too." 

The  pig  and  the  goat  have  gone,  and  instead, 
the  Irish  have  pianos  and  phonographs  in  their 
parlours  ;  but  in  one  generation,  many  Slavs  and 
Italians,  under  less  favourable  conditions,  have 
achieved  the  same  results,  minus  the  pig  and 
goat  period. 

To-day,  the  merchants  in  Wilkes-Barre,  Scran- 
ton,  Connelsville  and  Pittsburg  regard  the  Slav 
as  a  great "  spender"  ;  and  if  the  Italian  is  not 
now  like  his  predecessors,  he  soon  will  become 
so  imbued  by  the  American  spirit,  that,  like  us, 
he  will  live  up  to  his  income  and  beyond  it. 


PROBLEMS  OF  THE  TIDE         193 

That  phase  of  the  problem  so  much  complained 
of,  which  relates  to  the  immigrants'  sending  the 
bulk  of  their  earnings  to  Europe,  would  not  be 
half  so  serious  if  we  provided  a  safe  banking 
system ;  preferably,  Postal  Savings  Banks.  Both 
the  Austrian  and  Italian  governments  thus  safe- 
guard every  penny  which  is  sent  abroad,  and 
one  cannot  blame  the  toiler  who  prefers  to  trust 
his  money  to  a  government  in  whose  financial 
soundness  he  has  absolute  confidence,  rather 
than  place  it  in  our  own  savings  institutions, 
in  which  we  ourselves  have  but  little  confi- 
dence. 

The  economic  problem  as  presented  by  the 
effect  of  immigration  upon  the  labour  market  is 
made  less  serious  by  the  fact  that  large  numbers 
of  those  who  come,  go  back  and  forth,  according 
to  the  demand  for  the  commodity  which  they 
supply. 

During  our  last  financial  crisis,  the  sudden 
withdrawal  from  competition  of  half  a  million 
toilers,  certainly  rendered  conditions  less  difficult 
than  they  would  have  been  had  we  drawn  for 
our  supply  upon  those  sources  in  Northern  and 
Central  Europe,  which  have  always  sent  us  their 
surplus  population  for  permanent  settlement. 
Those  aspects  of  the  present  immigrant  popula- 
tion, which  are  usually  pointed  out  as  its  defeats, 
have  in  a  large  measure  helped  to  make  the 
economic  problem  less  acute;  although  they 


194  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

have  aggravated  some  phases  of  it.  Foremost 
among  these  is  the  ethnic  problem. 

Possibly  because  of  the  bitterness  of  the  race 
question  in  the  South,  the  American  people  have 
become  very  sensitive  to  ethnic  differences.  All 
those  primitive  instincts  which  were  at  work  in 
the  childhood  of  the  race  have  risen  to  the  sur- 
face and  threaten  to  become  permanent  factors 
in  our  national  character. 

A  little  more  or  less  pigment  in  the  skin,  the 
shape  of  a  nose  or  the  slant  of  the  eyes,  produce 
in  the  average  American  that  most  primitive  of 
antagonisms — race  prejudice. 

Being  a  primitive  instinct,-  it  defies  reason,  the 
commandments  of  religion  and  the  dictates  of 
humanity.  In  fact,  it  often  becomes  irrational, 
irreligious  and  inhuman. 

During  the  recent  agitation  of  the  Japanese 
question  on  the  Coast,  I  discovered  that  no  mat- 
ter how  far  removed  the  ordinary  American  may 
be  from  the  seat  of  the  difficulty,  the  very  agita- 
tion of  the  question  acts  contagiously  upon  the 
people  of  the  East  as  well  as  of  the  West  As  a 
result,  their  feelings  towards  the  Japanese  have 
unconsciously  changed  for  the  worse,  so  that  the 
question  has  assumed  in  their  minds  the  qual- 
ities and  proportions  of  the  Negro  problem. 

To  justify  its  existence,  this  instinct,  if  such  it 
is,  overemphasizes  ethnic  differences  and  mini- 
mizes the  superior  qualities  of  the  race  or  group 


PROBLEMS  OF  THE  TIDE         195 

involved.  It  always  applies  the  categoric  judg- 
ment when  the  judgment  is  adverse,  and  admits 
grudgingly  that  in  each  group  or  race  there  are 
certain  individuals  who  possess  good  qualities. 

In  visiting  nearly  every  city  of  the  United 
States  where  there  are  groups  of  Italians,  I  have 
everywhere  heard  it  said  by  those  who  had  deal- 
ings with  them  :  "  We  have  no  bad  Italians,  ours 
are  good,  the  bad  ones  are  elsewhere."  In 
Trenton,  N.  J.,  you  are  told  that  the  bad  Italians 
are  in  Patterson  ;  but  when  you  are  there,  nearly 
every  one  denies  the  fact  and  consigns  all  the 
bad  Italians  to  New  York. 

The  truth  is,  that  wherever  men  have  had  a 
chance  to  know  the  individual  Italian,  they  have 
discovered  that  there  are  good  Italians  even  as 
there  are  good  Jews  and  good  Slavs,  and  that 
there  are  good  and  bad  in  every  race. 

Naturally,  when  men  apply  the  warped  cate- 
goric judgment  to  another  race,  particularly 
when  that  race  is  in  political  or  economic  com- 
petition with  them,  they  are  likely  to  magnify 
the  evil  in  the  character  of  the  race,  and  rarely 
even  admit  the  good.  That  this  categoric  judg- 
ment is  seldom  just,  that  it  leads  to  antagonisms 
which  actualize  themselves  in  race  riots  and 
wars,  is  certainly  very  evident. 

I  have  watched  the  development  of  this  preju- 
dice against  the  Japanese,  even  as  I  am  most 
anxiously  watching  it  grow  against  certain  Euro- 


196  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

pean  groups  which  are  ethnically  more  or  less 
differentiated  from  the  native  population,  and  I 
am  not  over  confident  that  we  shall  solve  the 
ethnic  problem  without  much  struggle  and  stress 
and  strain.  Indeed,  the  ethnic  problem  can  be 
solved  only  if  we  have  patience,  a  measure  of 
sympathy  and  the  sense  of  justice. 

There  is  a  subtle  force  at  work,  which,  to  a 
degree  at  least,  is  settling  this  matter  for  us — 
a  force  which,  if  we  allow  it  full  play,  will  com- 
plete the  task  whose  result  will  be  the  miracle  of 
the  age. 

I  call  it  a  miracle,  advisedly;  for  the  things 
which  seemed  fixed,  unchangeable,  deeply  graven 
in  the  nature  of  certain  European  races,  the 
products  of  long  ages,  vanish  in  a  generation. 

Race  characteristics  which  were  regarded  as 
biological  are  found  to  be  sociological ;  on  the 
outside  of  the  race,  if  we  might  so  express  it,  and 
not  on  the  inside. 

The  children  of  the  Neapolitans  and  the  Sicil- 
ians lose  somewhat  of  their  swarthiness  ;  the  fea- 
tures lose  their  sharpness,  and  as  a  rule  the 
children  grow  over  the  heads  of  their  parents. 
Indeed,  the  last  named  process  takes  place  among 
natives  and  aliens  alike. 

The  ethnic  differences  of  even  the  most  strongly 
marked  European  races  will  ultimately  disap- 
pear ;  that  is,  if  we  have  patience  and  sympathy, 
and,  above  all,  if  we  mete  out  that  justice  which 


PROBLEMS  OF  THE  TIDE          197 

gives  every  man  a  chance,  regardless  of  his  na- 
tionality or  race. 

As  a  nation  we  do  not  possess  in  an  abundant 
degree  these  qualities  ;  therefore  the  ethnic  prob- 
lem is  one  which  may  yet  postpone  its  solution 
until  that  time  when  indeed  there  shall  be  "  Peace 
on  Earth  and  Good  Will  to  Men." 

Thus  far  I  have  touched  upon  two  problems 
presented  by  the  return  of  the  immigrant  tide : 
the  economic  and  the  ethnic. 

Another  problem  presented  by  this  influx  of 
aliens  is  in  that  rather  indefinable  realm  called 
culture. 

The  question  is  :  Will  these  people  be  able  to 
appreciate  the  cultural  ideals  of  America,  and 
make  them  their  own  ? 

It  would  be  an  insult  to  my  readers  to  try  to 
make  clear  to  them  that  the  people  who  come  to 
us  are  not  barbarians  or  semi-barbarians  ;  al- 
though as  a  rule  they  are  uncultured  and  not  yet 
in  harmony  with  many  of  our  ideals.  I  would 
not  even  attempt  to  mention  this,  were  it  not  for 
the  fact  that  it  is  the  commonly  accepted  idea, 
that  we  are  dealing  with  the  offscouring  of 
Europe.  Let  me  illustrate.  Not  very  long  ago, 
I  heard  a  home  missionary  secretary  of  a  certain 
denomination  say  before  an  audience  of  intel- 
ligent, Christian  people,  that  "We  are  landing 
annually  a  million  paupers  and  criminals  "  ;  and 
I  venture  to  say  that  nearly  every  one  who  heard 


198  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

that  statement  believed  it.  Let  us  see  who  these 
people  are  who  come  to  us. 

Slavs,  Latins  and  other  Aryan  groups,  such  as 
Lithuanians,  Albanians,  and  Greeks  ;  of  whom 
the  first  two  have  fairly  earned  the  right  to  be 
called  the  oldest  inhabitants  of  the  continent  of 
Europe.  Next  in  order  are  Finns  and  Magyars^ 
from  among  the  Ugru- Altaic  races,  Jews  and 
some  smaller  Semitic  groups.  The  bulk  is  made 
up  of  Slavs,  Latins  and  Semitic  peoples. 

Need  I  question  whether  the  Latin  has  in  him 
the  qualities  which  will  enable  him  to  appreciate 
our  culture?  The  Italian  who  built  Florence, 
whose  sons  built  St.  Peter's,  painted  the  ceiling 
of  the  Sistine  Chapel  and  carved  out  of  Carrara 
marble  the  "  Pieta  "  and  the  statue  of  Moses  ? 

Need  I  mention  Giotto,  the  builder,  Raphael, 
the  painter,  a  Dante,  a  Petrarch,  a  Savonarola — 
a  hundred  masters  of  the  chisel  and  the  brush, 
of  rhythmic  rhyme  and  stately  prose,  all  reared  in 
that  Garden  of  Europe,  Italy  ? 

Will  the  Jew  learn  to  appreciate  that  culture, 
the  best  of  which  was  created  by  his  sires?  For 
the  glory  of  our  American  culture  lies  in  the  qual- 
ity of  its  manhood  and  womanhood  and  that  at 
its  best  is  patterned  after  men  and  women  whose 
names  would  debar  them  from  certain  clubs  and 
hotels  to-day.  Moses,  Amos  and  Hosea,  Isaiah, 
Jeremiah,  and  in  all  reverence  I  mention  Jesus 
and  Mary,  John,  Paul  and  Peter.  Strange  to 


PROBLEMS  OF  THE  TIDE         199 

say,  it  is  sometimes  necessary  to  call  the  atten- 
tion of  intelligent  people  to  the  fact  that  these 
men  and  women  were  not  Methodists  or  Presby- 
terians or  even  Episcopalians ;  and  that  neither 
their  sires  nor  their  sons  came  over  in  the 
Mayflower* 

Perhaps  we  need  to  realize  that  as  Americans 
we  have  neither  invented  nor  discovered  educa- 
tion, liberty  or  religion.  What  we  have  accom- 
plished is,  that  we  have  made  gifts  to  the  many, 
of  some  of  those  blessings  which  in  the  im- 
migrants' country  are  the  possession  only  of  the 
few  ;  and  that  is  no  small  achievement. 

The  problem,  the  real  problem,  is :  how  to  feed 
these  people  on  truly  vital  knowledge,  how  to 
make  common  to  all,  the  beautiful,  the  harmoni- 
ous, the  ethical ;  how  to  bring  to  all,  the  knowl- 
edge of  that  religion  which  indeed  makes  free 
from  tribal  pride  and  racial  hate  and  leads  men 
into  the  freedom  of  the  sons  of  God. 

Perhaps  the  greatest  problem  still  to  be  solved 
is,  how  to  interpret  to  these  people  the  one  su- 
preme gift  of  all  these  gifts  which  most  of  them 
never  possessed — the  right  of  citizenship. 

Herein  lies  our  real  peril ;  not  because  the  im- 
migrant cannot  be  made  to  understand  how  to 
exercise  this  right ;  but  because  here  we  are  least 
efficient,  and  here  we,  the  earlier  comers  and 
their  children,  have  most  signally  failed. 

The  Scotch-Irish  of  Pittsburg  are  not  a  con 


200  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

spicuous  example  of  good  citizenship  for  the 
Italians ;  the  Germans  of  Reading  and  Lancaster 
have  no  overplus  of  civic  righteousness  to  give 
the  Slavs  ;  the  Quakers  of  Philadelphia  have  not 
been  moved  by  the  Spirit  to  teach  the  Jews  how 
to  govern  a  city  righteously  ;  the  Yankees  of 
Connecticut  and  Rhode  Island  have  not  ruled 
their  states  in  such  a  manner  that  the  crude 
Lithuanian  or  the  Greek  could  in  all  cases  follow 
their  example ;  nor  are  the  Irish  of  New  York  in 
a  position  to  throw  stones  at  the  other  races. 

I  do  not  know  of  a  single  case  where  the  newer 
groups  have  failed  to  respond  to  sane,  vigorous 
leadership  in  the  struggle  for  civic  righteous- 
ness ;  while  in  every  large  city  there  are  con- 
spicuous examples  of  many  a  battle  won,  because 
the  immigrants  have  aided  the  cause. 

In  Scranton,  Pa.,  in  the  fight  for  a  clean  city, 
the  mayor's  private  secretary,  a  Russian  Jew, 
did  valiant  service  ;  while  Pittsburgh  "  cleaning 
up  "  has  been  accomplished  because  a  vigorous 
attorney  of  the  same  race  was  one  of  the  captains 
in  a  campaign  which  may  have  vast  consequences 
for  the  entire  state. 

It  ought  to  be  a  matter  of  no  little  pride  to  the 
Jews  of  Pittsburg,  that  among  its  non-corruptible 
councilmen  there  was  at  least  one  of  their  race. 

Prof.  Graham  Taylor  of  Chicago,  whose  worth 
and  work  that  city  does  not  fully  appreciate,  has 
found  the  Poles  of  his  ward  ready  to  share  in 


PROBLEMS  OF  THE  TIDE         201 


the  struggle  for  civic  betterment.     One  of 
first  "clean"  councilmen  of  the  city  came  from 
that  ward  and  was  a  member  of  the  Slavic  race. 

The  problem  of  citizenship  is  not  a  problem 
created  by  the  immigrant,  and  his  presence 
makes  it  more  difficult  of  solution,  only  because 
we  have  not  provided  him  with  safe  leaders  and 
have  not  ourselves  been  very  good  examples. 
Indeed  the  primary  corrupting  influence  in  every 
city  with  which  I  am  acquainted  is  either  of 
native  stock  or  belongs  to  the  first  or  second 
generation  of  those  immigrants  whose  coming 
does  not  disturb  us  and  whose  presence  we  re- 
gard as  a  blessing.  These  are  either  German  or 
Irish,  and  largely  of  the  latter  nationality. 

That  phase  of  the  struggle  which  is  directed 
against  the  saloon,  the  newcomer  does  not  un- 
derstand, and  as  yet  no  one  has  taken  pains  to 
enlighten  him.  We  are  astonished  when  we 
find  him  opposing  our  efforts  to  deprive  him  of 
his  liquor;  but  to  the  Slav,  at  least,  whiskey 
means  life  and  strength.  He  would  regard  be- 
ing deprived  of  meat  as  more  reasonable  than 
having  his  vodka  or  palenka  taken  from  him. 

The  immigrant  needs  leaders  in  whom  he 
can  have  absolute  confidence  ;  leaders  who  pos- 
sess the  genius  of  democracy  and  the  spirit  of 
brotherhood  ;  who  will  have  patience  with  his 
slow  ways. 

Those  of  us  who  are  not  born  to  lead  ought  to 


202  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

realize  that  a  good  example  is  very  contagious, 
and  that  the  love  of  righteousness  and  justice  is 
not  so  foreign  to  these  strangers  as  some  of  us 
imagine. 

It  is  in  the  hope  of  stimulating  both  leadership 
and  good  example  that  I  have  written  the  fol- 
lowing chapters.  In  that  hope  I  have  pointed 
out  how  contagiously  our  example  acts  upon 
these  groups  and  how  the  processes  of  assimila- 
tion are  retarded  by  injustice  and  prejudice. 

I  have  given  special  attention  to  the  religious 
life  of  these  newer  groups  whose  interpretation  1 
have  attempted,  because  not  only  does  religion 
play  a  large  part  in  their  lives ;  but  because  I  be- 
lieve that  in  the  field  of  religion  lie  the  largest 
possibilities  for  that  kind  of  assimilation  which 
can  make  of  all  these  "  tribes  and  tongues  and 
nations  "  "  fellow  citizens  with  the  saints  "  ;  and 
of  all  the  "  strangers  and  sojourners,"  members 
of  the  "  household  of  God." 


XIV 
THE  SLAV  IN  THE  IMMIGRANT  PROBLEM 

IN  the  three  groups  which  form  the  bulk  of 
our  immigrant  population,  the  Slav  is  now 
the  strongest  and  the  most  interesting 
factor,  and  is  destined  to  be  for  some  time  to 
come. 

In  spite  of  his  being  from  the  least  densely 
populated  regions,  he  is  numerically  the  greatest 
and  will  long  maintain  his  supremacy.  There 
are  more  than  100,000,000  Slavs,  and  the  terri- 
tory they  occupy  is  vast,  covering  half  the 
European  continent  and  reaching  far  into  Asia. 

These  people  are  scattered  in  villages,  but 
rarely  concentrated  in  cities  ;  nevertheless,  social 
and  political  conditions  among  all  of  them  are 
now  such  as  to  force  this  most  immovable  of 
European  races  into  the  great  outgoing  tide. 

The  majority  of  Slavic  people  is  of  peasant 
type,  and  scarcely  anywhere  has  it  developed  a 
middle  class  strong  enough  to  form  a  bridge 
upon  which  to  cross  the  age-long  chasm  between 
it  and  the  upper  class.  This  means  that  poverty 
and  contempt  have  been  accepted  as  the  reward 
for  hard  labour,  and  as  the  divinely  appointed 

303 


204  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

lot  of  the  peasant,  who  in  but  few  Slavic  countries 
has  escaped  serfdom,  a  condition  of  semi-slavery 
from  which  he  emerged  with  insufficient  land,  or 
none,  with  many  limitations  as  to  individual 
ownership  and  with  practically  no  limitations  as 
to  his  share  of  the  burden  of  government  support. 

The  masses  of  the  peoples  of  the  Slavic  coun- 
tries have  never  been  above  economic  want,  and 
have  been  but  slowly  awakened  to  the  more 
expensive  demands  of  our  civilization. 

To  the  peasant,  bread  and  cabbage  to  eat,  a 
straw  thatched  isba  to  shelter  his  family,  and  an 
occasional  pull  at  the  vodka  bottle,  meant  com- 
fort ;  while  to  have  feather  beds,  a  crowing  cock 
in  the  barn-yard  and  a  pig  killing  once  a  year, 
was  the  realization  of  his  wildest  dreams. 

Fully  two-thirds  of  these  more  than  100,000,000 
people  do  not  know  what  it  means  to  have 
enough  bread  to  eat,  and  with  the  exception  of 
Hungary,  many  of  the  countries  in  which  they 
live  do  not  produce  enough  foodstuffs  to  allow 
every  man  the  ordinary  military  rations.  Never- 
theless, they  are  forced  to  export  a  fair  share  of 
their  crops,  in  order  to  bring  sufficient  money 
into  the  country  for  the  support  of  the  govern- 
ment 

To  people  living  under  such  economic  condi- 
tions, emigrating  to  America  will,  for  some  years 
at  least,  be  a  going  from  Egypt  to  the  Promised 
Land ;  although  manna  and  meat  have  to  be 


THE  SLAV  205 

supplied  without  supernatural  intervention  and 
at  the  constant  peril  of  life  and  limb. 

As  the  Slav  has  not  yet  developed  a  compact 
middle  class,  this  has  had  to  be  supplied  by 
foreigners.  Germans,  Jews,  Tartars,  Armenians 
and  Greeks  are  his  merchants  and  mechanics,  his 
bankers  and  manufacturers.  This  condition  has 
fixed  the  social  status  of  the  peasant,  placed  him 
under  exceptionally  burdensome  laws  and  marked 
him  an  inferior. 

His  picturesque  clothing  became  his  prison 
garb,  and  rarely  did  he  have  opportunity  to  ex- 
change it  for  the  commonplace  clothing  of  our 
civilization. 

To  be  a  peasant  means  to  be  addressed  by  a 
personal  pronoun  which  is  a  mark  of  inferiority  ; 
it  means  to  be  bound  by  customs  which  are  as 
irksome  as  an  "  iron  shirt  "  ;  it  means  to  be  the 
butt  of  the  ridicule  of  stage  fools,  who,  after  all, 
only  mimic  the  fools  in  real  life. 

Military  service  offered  the  only  escape  from 
this  cast,  and  bravery  in  battle  the  only  avenue 
to  distinction. 

Into  some  regions  the  industrial  life  came  with 
its  rude  call  to  freedom,  with  its  trumpet  notes  of 
revolution,  and  the  half  awakened  Slav  struck  ; 
then  went  to  sleep  again,  murmuring  something 
like  a  curse,  before  he  closed  his  eyes. 

This  social  disability  of  the  Slavic  peasant  is 
being  partially  overcome  by  immigration;  for 


206  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

the  immigrant  who  has  tasted  a  little  of  even  our 
crude  freedom  with  its  mixed  blessings,  who 
wears  our  sombre  clothing,  whose  feet  are  shod 
with  our  shoes — he  it  is  of  whom  it  might  again 
be  said,  poetically  and  prophetically :  "  How 
beautiful  are  the  feet  of  him  that  bringeth  glad 
tidings  of  good  things." 

These  glad  tidings  will,  for  a  long  time,  bring 
us  these  millions,  in  the  hope  that  they  too  may 
earn  the  right  to  escape  their  bondage  with  its 
attendant  limitations  and  contumely. 

Economically,  always  at  the  edge  of  want  and 
in  the  shadow  of  starvation,  and  socially  always 
at  a  disadvantage,  the  Slavic  peasant  is  also  liv- 
ing under  galling  political  conditions  which  he  is 
only  now  beginning  to  feel  in  all  their  severity. 

With  but  few  exceptions,  the  Slav  is  an  op- 
pressed man  ;  oppressed  by  alien  rulers,  who,  by 
force,  are  trying  to  wipe  out  of  his  consciousness 
his  national  memories,  and  steal  from  his  lips  his 
mother  tongue. 

Where  it  is  not  the  German  or  the  Magyar 
who  puts  him  under  the  yoke,  it  is  some  close 
Slav  relative  who  is  practicing  on  him  the 
Golden  Rule  in  its  perverted  form.  When  these 
conditions  do  not  exist,  the  Slav  bears  the  yoke 
of  his  own  making,  in  the  form  of  Autocracy. 

It  is  the  distinction  of  the  Slavs  that  they  are 
the  only  Europeans  who,  although  not  unan- 
imously, believe  that  Autocracy  is  the  form 


s 

U   rt 

<    *• 
KCJ 


*  § 

Ul    3; 


THE  SLAV  207 

of  government  best  suited  to  their  national 
character. 

This  is  certainly  true  of  many  Russians,  who 
see  in  the  Czar  a  divinely  appointed  autocrat; 
while  many  other  Slavs  of  different  nationalities 
dream  of  the  day  when  they  shall  bear  this  same 
yoke.  The  Russians  also  rule,  and  most  severely, 
their  close  kinsmen,  the  Poles,  and  are  not 
noticeably  liberal  to  the  Malo  Russ,  the  Little 
Russians  of  the  South. 

Every  cruel,  political  expedient  has  been  used 
by  Russia  to  subjugate  or  assimilate  these  peo- 
ple, who  are  flesh  of  her  flesh  and  bone  of  her 
bone. 

One  might  imagine  that  the  Poles  would  have 
learned  enough  in  the  school  of  political  ad- 
versity to  treat  their  own  kinsmen,  at  least,  as 
they  would  wish  to  be  treated ;  but  the  trials  the 
Ruthenians  have  endured  at  their  hands  are 
equalled  only  by  what  they  themselves  have  en- 
dured at  the  hands  of  the  Russians. 

That  the  Poles  suffer  from  the  Germans,  the 
Slovaks  from  the  Magyars,  the  Slovenes  and 
Servians  from  the  Austrians,  is  only  additional 
evidence  that  everywhere  the  Slavic  peasant 
suffers  politically,  and  that  there  is  sufficient 
cause  for  the  insecurity  of  his  foothold.  He 
realizes  this  the  more,  in  the  measure  in  which 
he  feels  the  breath  of  welcoming  freedom  from 
across  the  seas,  which  lures  him  to  our  turbulent 


208  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

training  school  in  citizenship,  and  no  doubt  will 
continue  to  lure  him. 

The  economic,  social  and  political  conditions 
among  the  Slavs  are  such  as  will  for  some  time 
in  the  future  make  their  coming  to  America 
in  large  numbers,  a  certainty,  and  it  is  not  out 
of  the  question  that  they  will  be  the  determining 
factor  in  our  civilization.  The  Slav  fits  admirably 
into  the  place  usually  assigned  the  late  comers 
among  the  immigrants  :  the  bottom  rung  of  the 
economic  ladder.  Of  rugged  physique  and  docile 
temper,  he  is  regarded  a  valuable  workman, 
performing  the  hardest  tasks  uncomplainingly, 
facing  attendant  dangers  courageously,  and  en- 
during hardships  and  sufferings  stolidly  and 
without  a  murmur.  Economically,  he  is  never 
so  much  of  a  problem  as  the  immigrant  who 
comes  to  make  his  living  by  his  wits  ;  for  that  is 
a  sphere  likely  to  be  crowded  by  the  earlier,  or 
what  we  might  call  the  more  advanced  groups. 

The  Slav  is  docile  and  patient  and  need  not  be 
regarded  as  a  serious  economic  menace  by  those 
who  think  that  our  workmen  should  demand  a 
decent  wage  and  maintain  a  fair  standard  of  liv- 
ing. He  is  not  temperate  in  his  habits  of  either 
eating  or  drinking,  his  tastes  in  regard  to  cloth- 
ing are  crude,  but  not  necessarily  inexpensive 
and  he  squanders  too  much  money  for  "  that 
which  satisfieth  not."  He  spends  over  thirty 
per  cent,  more  for  drink  than  the  native  work- 


THE  SLAV  209 

man,  pays  more,  according  to  his  wage,  for  rent, 
and  falls  behind  only  in  that  mysterious  column 
which  the  social  observer  calls  "  miscellaneous." 
In  the  Slavic  groups  which  have  been  here 
longest  and  which  contain  households,  the  wife 
has  lifted  this  mysterious  column  to  a  normal 
figure ;  for  "  Mother  Vanity"  has  many  daughters 
among  the  Slavic  women. 

The  Slavic  standard  of  cleanliness  suffers  by 
comparison  with  that  of  the  older  groups ;  al- 
though they  are  widely  different  in  this  respect 
and  it  is  not  safe  to  generalize  on  that  point 

In  judging  the  Slav  we  must  take  into  con- 
sideration the  housing  conditions  in  America  as 
he  finds  them,  the  fact  that  the  men  among  the 
Slavs  never  do  woman's  work,  that  many  of 
them  come  without  their  wives  and  that  the 
woman  in  her  native  environment  has  very  little 
time  for  the  finer  household  duties.  She  is  her 
husband's  partner  in  all  his  heavy  labour ;  but 
must  do  all  her  household  work  unaided. 

Many  of  the  Slavic  groups  will  be  slow  to  un- 
derstand and  appreciate  the  higher  ideals  of  our 
civilization,  but  our  civilization  is  not  so  foreign 
to  their  genius  as  we  are  apt  to  think.  Wher- 
ever they  have  had  the  slightest  opportunity, 
they  have  made  valuable  contribution  to  it. 
We  must  not  forget  that  the  Slav  gave  the 
world  a  Copernicus  before  we  gave  it  a  Newton  ; 
that  he  gave  it  a  John  Huss  before  the  Germans 


210  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

gave  it  a  Luther;  that  Comenius,  one  of  the 
greatest  pedagogues,  lived  and  laboured  before 
Froebel  and  Pestalozzi ;  and  that  Turgenieff, 
Tolstoy,  Dostoyevsky,  Pushkin  and  Sienkiewicz 
stand  fairly  well  beside  our  makers  of  literature. 

I  am  not  blind  to  some  of  the  defects  in  the 
character  of  the  Slavic  peoples,  in  fact  I  know 
them  so  well  that  I  know  their  source  and  I 
realize  that  they  are  not  rooted  in  the  race,  but 
are  the  results  of  tyranny.  These  faults  which 
seem  so  deeply  fixed  in  the  lives  of  the  people 
can  and  will  be  wiped  out ;  although  the  task 
may  not  be  an  easy  one. 

There  is  in  the  Slav  a  certain  passivity  of 
temper,  a  lack  in  sustained  effort  and  enthu- 
siasms, an  unwillingness  to  take  the  consequences 
of  telling  the  truth,  a  failure  to  confide  in  one 
another  and  in  those  who  would  do  them  good, 
a  rather  gross  attitude  towards  sexual  morality 
and  an  undeniable  tendency  towards  Anarchy 
and  intemperance. 

They  have  but  little  collective  wisdom,  even  as 
they  have  no  genius  for  leadership,  scant  courtesy 
towards  women,  and  other  human  weaknesses  to 
which  the  whole  human  race  is  heir.  To  balance 
these  failings,  however,  they  have  a  deeply  re- 
ligious nature,  a  willingness  to  suffer  hardship,  a 
genius  for  self-expression  in  all  forms  of  art,  are 
usually  honest  in  their  business  dealings  and  hos- 
pitable to  strangers. 


THE  SLAV  211 

The  danger  is,  that,  in  his  new  environment, 
the  idealistic  Slav  will  grow  materialistic,  that 
his  phlegmatic  temper  will  not  take  seriously  the 
burdens  of  self-government,  that  in  an  individ- 
ualistic atmosphere  where  "  help  yourself "  is  the 
watchword,  latent  tendencies  towards  Anarchy 
may  develop,  and  that  in  our  social  organization 
which  demands  both  the  power  of  leadership  and 
that  of  cohesion,  he  will  be  a  brittle  element,  in- 
capable of  either. 

Yet  I  do  not  fear  that  Slavic  social  or  religious 
ideals  or  even  racial  characteristics  will  become 
dominant  among  us,  even  if  the  Slavs  should 
constitute  the  bulk  of  our  immigrant  population. 
My  reasons  are  :  First :  Because  these  ideals 
and  characteristics  are  embodied  in  a  peasant 
population  which  has  little  or  no  influence  over  its 
second  generation,  for  it  has  found  a  higher  social 
level.  To  this  second  generation,  neither  the 
speech  nor  the  customs  of  its  parents  is  attractive. 

Second :  Because  the  Slav  is  environed  by 
city  life  and  no  matter  how  compact  his  neigh- 
bourhood may  be,  elements  which  make  up  the 
urban  spirit  penetrate  into  the  most  densely 
populated  alley,  make  themselves  felt,  and  be- 
come dominant. 

Third :  Because  in  his  native  environment 
the  Slav  has  taken  on  the  ideals  of  his  neigh- 
bours more  often  than  he  has  imposed  his  upon 
others. 


212  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

In  Asia,  he  has  been  influenced  by  his  Mongol 
neighbours,  but  has  himself  not  left  any  visible 
traces. 

In  Europe,  the  numerically  weak  Finn  has  re- 
sisted the  force  of  the  Autocratic  State  and  the 
Orthodox  Church  ;  but  has  left  the  impress  of  his 
genius  upon  his  Slavic  neighbours. 

After  centuries  of  close  contact  with  Slavic 
government,  the  Germans  in  the  Baltic  provinces 
of  Russia  are  still  more  German  than  Russian. 

The  Czechs  of  Bohemia,  the  most  virile  of  all 
the  Slavic  peoples,  in  spite  of  their  stubborn 
struggle,  have  not  metamorphosed  their  Ger- 
manic fellow  citizens  into  Czechs ;  although  they 
cannot  easily  deny  the  strong  influence  of  their 
Teutonic  neighbours  upon  themselves. 

A  mere  handful  of  Magyars,  almost  at  the 
centre  of  the  sphere  of  Slavic  influence,  have  im- 
posed upon  millions  of  Slavs  their  language  and 
their  ideals. 

Whatever  the  causes  for  these  conditions  may 
be,  and  there  are  good  causes,  the  truth  is,  that 
the  Slav  has  nowhere  become  a  dominant  factor 
in  the  environment  in  which  he  has  been  placed ; 
and  we  need  neither  hope  nor  fear  that  his  ideals  or 
his  characteristics  will  become  ours  for  good  or  ill. 

Again  it  is  true  that  in  America  this  Slavic 
peasant  population  is  awakened  to  its  racial  and 
historic  heritage,  and  that  feeling  may  be  so 
artificially  fostered  by  patriotism  and  religious 


THE  SLAV  213 

organizations  as  to  hinder  a  normal  process  of 
assimilation. 

The  Slav,  by  virtue  of  being  among  the  most 
numerous  of  our  new  citizens,  has  a  right  to  de- 
mand that  the  rest  of  us  should  know  him ;  for 
by  knowing  him,  we  shall  learn  to  respect  him, 
appreciate  the  good  qualities  of  his  race  and 
help  him  to  overcome  tendencies  which  hinder 
his  full  development. 

We  must  give  the  Slav  a  full  chance  to  know 
us,  the  best  of  us  and  the  best  in  us — he  usually 
knows  the  worst. 

He  must  have  our  best  interpreted  to  him  in 
rational  terms  and  ways,  and  not  have  it  forced 
upon  him  by  law  or  by  a  custom  to  which  he 
yields  but  which  he  cannot  understand. 

I  have  described  the  Slav's  quality  as  brittle  ; 
perhaps  stubborn  would  be  better.  You  can  lead 
him  to  the  water  and  can  also  compel  him  to 
drink ;  but  he  will  stop  drinking  when  you  are 
not  looking,  and  "  kick  "  besides. 

On  the  other  hand,  once  he  understands  and 
endorses  an  ideal,  he  will  be  loyal  to  it ;  stub- 
bornly loyal. 

Inasmuch  as  I  believe  that  America's  best 
possessions  are  those  ideals  which  spring  from 
its  religious  convictions,  ideals  inherited  from  its 
Judaic  and  Christian  ancestry,  I  also  believe  that 
its  effort  should  be  to  interpret  them  to  the  Slav 
in  practical  terms  of  fellowship  and  service. 


214  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

How  far  from  these  ideals  or  how  near  to  them 
the  Slav  is,  I  have  attempted  to  show  in  the  next 
chapter  ;  and  to  make  the  task  of  interpretation 
easier,  I  have  put  the  more  important  Slavic 
groups  with  which  we  have  to  deal,  in  their  own 
historic  setting. 

This  will,  I  trust,  stimulate  in  the  further  study 
of  these  people  who  are  worth  knowing  for  what 
they  have  suffered,  for  what  they  have  done  and 
for  what  they  are. 


XV 

THE  SLAV  IN  HISTORIC  CHRISTIANITY 

WHEN  the  sword  of  Rome,  the  ideals  of 
Athens  and  the  faith  of  Judea  strove 
for  the  mastery  of  the  world,  the  Slavs 
were  still  unknown  to  history.  Upon  the  middle 
European  plain,  along  the  Don,  the  Dnieper  and 
the  Vistula  they  lived  a  semi-nomadic  life,  at  war 
only  with  bear,  elk  and  boar,  and  at  peace  with 
the  dominant  races  in  the  west  of  Europe  which 
scarcely  knew  of  their  existence. 

Very  early  in  the  Christian  era,  the  transition 
from  nomadic  to  agricultural  life  took  place,  and 
they  became  so  identified  with  the  soil  that  some 
of  the  agricultural  terms  they  used  have  been 
embodied  in  other  European  languages. 

The  facts  that  the  Slavs  inhabited  the  eastern 
portions  of  Europe  to  its  very  edge,  that  Chris- 
tian civilization  was  imposed  upon  them  by  By- 
zantine and  Roman  influences,  when  both  were 
struggling  for  the  mastery  of  the  Christian  world, 
and  that  the  territory  they  inhabited  became 
their  battle-ground — had  great  and  lasting  effect, 
not  only  upon  their  political  history  but  upon 
their  religious  life  and  their  national  character. 

The  Slavs  then  are  a  late  product  of  Christian 
"5 


216  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

civilization ;  an  unfinished  and  inharmonious 
product  which  is  at  its  worst,  where  later  Greek 
and  Roman  influences  touched  it,  most  turbulent 
where  modern  Western  ideas  have  suddenly  af- 
fected it,  and  at  its  best  and  rarest  where  the 
Slav's  own  talents  and  resources  have  had  a 
chance  for  rational  development  and  adjustment. 

That  which  complicates  the  problem  presented 
to  us  by  the  Slav  is  the  fact  that  in  spite  of  his 
occupying  practically  contiguous  territory,  the 
close  family  bond  was  early  broken  by  conquer- 
ing armies,  by  rival  missionary  groups,  by  in- 
vading aliens  who  came  to  pillage,  barter  and 
trade,  and  by  the  influx  of  his  neighbours,  who 
varied  all  the  way  from  Tartar  and  Turk  to 
German  and  Magyar ;  from  Finn  and  Armenian 
to  Greek  and  Albanian. 

When  we  speak  of  Slavs  to-day  we  refer  to 
Aryan  people,  whatever  that  may  mean  beyond 
the  fact  that  they  are  Europeans,  presenting  no 
great  ethnic  variations  ;  although  there  is  no 
doubt  that  Mongol  and  Finnish  blood  has  found 
its  way  into  the  veins  of  the  Eastern  Slavs.  We 
also  mean  that  they  speak  a  closely  related  lan- 
guage, the  Slavic ;  but  which  has  become  so  dif- 
ferentiated in  time  that  there  are  now  literatures 
in  Russian,  Polish,  Czechish,  Servian  and  Bul- 
garian ;  each  a  distinct  language,  differing  in 
alphabet,  grammar,  accent  or  sentence  construc- 
tion. 


HISTORIC  CHRISTIANITY  217 

Besides  these,  there  are  other  dialects,  vital 
enough  and  varied  enough  to  have  created  their 
own  literature,  and  zealously  guarded  as  their 
mother  tongue  by  the  people  who  speak  them. 

These  linguistic  differences  have  aided  in  com- 
plicating the  religious  and  political  problems 
among  them.  Thus,  the  Russians  and  the  Poles 
have  been  made  hereditary  enemies,  largely,  be- 
cause one  received  its  Christian  doctrines  from 
Rome  and  the  other  from  Constantinople ;  Ruthe- 
nians  and  Poles  in  Austria  have  been  pitted 
against  each  other  in  an  age-long  struggle,  by  a 
difference  in  liturgies  ;  Slovaks  and  Czechs,  al- 
most twin  brothers,  are  little  better  than  strangers 
to  one  another,  because  of  a  few  hooks  in  the  al- 
phabet and  a  few  variations  in  pronunciation. 

The  whole  Southern  Slavic  group  remains  po- 
litically ineffective  because  of  the  dissimilarities 
of  the  Cyrilian  and  Latin  alphabets  and  all  that 
their  difference  is  made  to  imply. 

Even  when  transplanted  to  America,  these 
contentions  are  magnified  by  the  churches  and 
governments  concerned,  which  thus  are  effective 
in  the  continued  separation  of  related  groups. 

If  the  Slavs  may  be  called  one  race,  they  cer- 
tainly present  a  kaleidoscopic  conglomerate  out 
of  which  emerge  three  groups  :  the  Western, 
Eastern  and  Southern  Slavs. 

Besides  their  common  racial  bond,  each  group 
is  related  by  language,  economic  environment, 


2i8  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

determined  by  climatic  and  political  conditions, 
and  above  all,  by  religion,  which  is  a  stronger 
bond  than  even  ties  of  racial  kinship. 

The  entire  Slavic  world  is  living  under  the  do- 
minion of  religion  more  or  less  clearly  interpreted 
and  understood.  This  manifests  itself  in  conver- 
sation with  the  people.  "  God  help  you  on  your 
way  1 "  -  "  Go  with  God."  "  Praised  be  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ ! "  are  common  greetings  as 
one  journeys  along  Slavic  highways  and  byways. 

The  names  of  the  Deity  and  of  the  Saviour  or 
the  Virgin  are  never  uttered  without  lifting  the 
hat,  accompanied  by  the  words  :  "  Slava  i  cast 
nyim  budi ! "  Honour  and  praise  to  them  ! 

The  highways  among  the  Western  Slavs,  who 
are  largely  Roman  Catholic,  are  lined  by  crosses, 
chapels  and  shrines ;  and  no  matter  how  wretched 
the  village,  its  church  is  well  appointed  and  its 
peasants  are  not  quite  happy  at  the  end  of  the 
year,  unless  its  monotony  was  broken  by  a  pil- 
grimage to  some  shrine  where  the  Virgin  waits, 
ready  to  bestow  her  blessing  of  good  health  or 
other  rich  favours  supposed  to  be  in  her  special 
keeping. 

Feast  days  and  fast  days  follow  one  another  in 
quick  succession  and  no  season  of  the  year 
or  event  in  life  is  left  unhallowed  by  religious 
observances. 

All  this  is  equally  true  of  the  Eastern  and 
Southern  Slavs  who,  with  but  few  exceptions,  be- 


The  SLAVm  HISTORIC  CHRISTIANITY  219 

long  to  the  Greek  Orthodox  church,  and  are  cast 
in  a  religious  mold  as  fixed  as  the  form  of  the 
Byzantine  icon,  the  symbol  of  that  church. 

To  the  Russians,  the  largest  body  among  the 
Eastern  Slavs,  religion  is  an  atmosphere  in  which 
they  "  live  and  move  and  have  their  being." 
Among  them  also,  church  feasts  and  fasts  regulate 
the  days,  while  either  the  pleasure  or  the  pain 
they  bring  is  willingly  accepted. 

Sacrifices  of  candles  and  oil  are  freely  offered 
and  no  pilgrimage  is  too  wearisome  to  be  under- 
taken. Visiting  the  tombs  of  saints  and  the 
dwelling  places  of  hermits  is  a  national  mania, 
and  religious  ceremonies,  which  in  their  origin 
and  meaning  are  wholly  Pagan,  take  place  in  hut 
and  palace  alike ;  for  no  class  of  Russian  society 
is  quite  free  from  gross  superstitions.  The  peas- 
ant coachman,  who  drives  his  miserable  beast 
over  the  cobblestone  pavement,  crosses  himself 
before  every  chapel  and  icon  \  while  his  passen- 
ger, be  he  a  general,  a  university  professor  or 
one  of  the  common  people,  will  do  the  same,  with 
perhaps  only  a  little  less  unction. 

Yet,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  religious  forms  dom- 
inate the  life  of  the  masses  of  the  Slavs,  there 
are  no  people  in  Europe  who  less  understand  the 
real  value  of  religion,  whose  conduct  towards 
each  other  is  so  little  affected  by  it  or  to  whom  it 
is  so  entirely  a  mere  belief  in  the  mysterious 
forces  of  Heaven  and  Hell  which  can  be  appeased 


220  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

by  prayers,  formulas,  sacrifices  and  pilgrimage*. 
Religion  with  them  has  seemingly  nothing  to  do 
with  sobriety,  chastity,  conquering  the  will,  or 
the  cultivation  of  the  inner  virtues. 

The  blame  for  this  lies  largely  with  the  clergy, 
which,  whether  it  is  in  Russia,  Bulgaria  or  the 
countries  inhabited  by  the  different  Servian  na- 
tionalities, stimulates  the  superstition  of  the  peo- 
ple and  does  but  little  to  enlighten  or  ennoble  them. 

The  priests  nowhere  occupy  or  deserve  the 
place  which  they  hold  among  the  Western  Slavs, 
and  where  the  Roman  Catholic  minority  has  any 
fighting  ground  among  the  Southern  Slavs,  as 
in  Servia, — there  the  Franciscans  and  Trappists 
tower  above  the  Greek  clergy  as  benefactors  of 
their  people  and  often  as  true  saints  and  martyrs. 

My  assertion  that  the  Slav  is  by  nature  truly 
religious,  and  that  the  clergy  is  in  a  great  measure 
to  blame  for  his  hopelessly  low  standards,  is 
proved  by  the  remarkable  phenomenon  of  the 
sects,  which  especially  in  Russia  flourish,  in  spite 
of  persecution.  They  grew  up  from  within ; 
some  of  them,  supposedly  before  the  Reformation, 
and  still  they  are  being  formed  and  developed. 

These  sects  range  all  the  way  from  the  most 
fanatical,  whose  members  seek  salvation  in  vol- 
untary death  or  in  some  revolting  form  of  morti- 
fication of  the  flesh,  to  large  and  influential 
bodies,  kinsmen  to  our  Quakers,  Baptists  and 
Methodists. 


The  SLAV  in  HISTORIC  CHRISTIANITY  221 

It  is  this  hunger  for  religion  which  is  the  most 
hopeful  characteristic  of  the  Slavs,  and  one  which 
ought  to  make  contact  with  them  less  difficult 
than  we  usually  imagine  it  to  be. 

The  problem  is,  how  to  purge  these  movements 
from  fanaticism  when  transferred  to  America ; 
although  in  our  soberer,  freer  and  more  practical 
atmosphere  the  dangerous  elements  are  apt  to  be 
spontaneously  corrected. 

Protestantism,  as  a  manifestation  of  historic 
Christianity,  antedates  among  them  the  German 
Reformation  and  was  contemporaneous  with  the 
earliest  movements  in  England.  History  clearly 
shows  that  the  Protestant  spirit  found  kinship 
among  the  Slavs  and  that  it  is  still  alive.  Evi- 
dences of  this  are  the  sect  of  the  Bogumils  early 
in  the  fourteenth  century,  which  has  left  its  traces 
among  the  Southern  Slavs  as  far  as  Bosnia  ;  the 
Hussite  movement  so  vitally  effective  in  prepar- 
ing the  way  for  Martin  Luther  and  still  a  force  in 
the  national  life  of  Bohemia — and  the  various 
sects  among  the  Russians. 

This  Protestant  spirit  in  its  conventional  form, 
as  found  in  Bohemia,  in  Poland  to  some  extent 
and  among  the  Slovaks  of  Hungary,  is  unfortu- 
nately no  more  a  factor  than  the  Mother  Church 
in  the  shaping  of  character,  in  inducing  right 
social  relations,  or  in  determining  the  future  of 
the  Slavic  race. 

There  are,  however,  various  Protestant  forces 


222  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

at  work  among  these  people  ;  forces  which  em- 
phasize spiritual  and  ethical  ideals  ;  such  as  the 
missions  of  the  American  Board,  in  Bohemia  ; 
the  devoted  and  enthusiastic  members  of  the 
"  Gemeinschaft "  in  Kattowitz  in  Silesia,  stra- 
tegically situated  where  three  great  empires  meet ; 
the  Baptist  missions  in  Russia,  and  above  all,  the 
returned  immigrant,  who  comes  home,  often  en- 
thusiastically but  sanely,  practically  and  devotedly 
religious,  and  with  whom  rests  largely  the  relig- 
ious and  political  future  of  at  least  two  Slavic 
nationalities,  the  Slovaks  and  the  Ruthenians, 
the  latest  to  be  awakened  to  the  economic  possi- 
bilities in  America. 

The  Slovaks  for  nearly  a  thousand  years  have 
retained  their  national  consciousness,  in  spite  of 
the  fact  that  long  ago  they  were  conquered  by 
the  Magyars,  who  have  used  every  possible  means 
to  wean  them  from  their  language,  the  one  strong 
link  binding  them  to  their  historic  past. 

Patiently  they  have  endured  a  national  martyr- 
dom ;  although  the  world  at  large  knows  nothing 
of  their  sufferings. 

Whenever  they  have  tried  to  speak,  prison 
doors  have  enforced  silence.  In  the  struggle  be- 
tween race  and  race,  the  Magyars,  who  them- 
selves were  persecuted  for  freedom's  sake,  have, 
in  their  treatment  of  the  Slovaks,  violated  every 
principle  of  political  liberty. 

In  a  little  village  called  Hluboka,  in  the  midst 


The  SLAV  in  HISTORIC  CHRISTIANITY  223 

of  their  well  tilled  acres,  lives  a  group  of  Slovaks 
whose  Lutheran  pastor,  John  Hurban,  was  a  man 
who  helped  to  keep  alive  this  national  spirit,  for 
which  he  endured  imprisonment  and  even  faced 
the  gallows.  In  1892  the  people  erected  a 
modest  monument  over  his  grave,  and  at  its  un- 
veiling they  were  driven  from  the  cemetery  at  the 
muzzle  of  the  gun. 

The  son  of  the  dead  pastor  wrote  an  article  in 
the  public  press  protesting  against  this,  and  he 
was  sent  to  prison  for  twelve  months.  An  editor, 
Ambrosius  Pietor,  was  incarcerated  for  eighteen 
months,  for  writing  two  articles  complaining  of 
the  treatment  his  people  received.  When  he  re- 
turned home  at  the  expiration  of  his  term,  his 
admirers  met  him  at  the  railroad  station  and 
some  young  girls  presented  him  with  bouquets 
of  flowers. 

Twenty-one  persons  who  took  part  in  this  re- 
ception were  sent  to  prison  for  an  average  of  a 
month  each,  and  the  three  young  girls,  who  be- 
trayed their  native  country  by  handing  this  man 
bouquets  of  flowers,  had  to  pay  fines,  aggrega- 
ting 400  kronen. 

In  1906,  245  Slovaks  were  sent  to  prison,  and 
from  1906  to  the  present  time  the  number  is  not 
far  from  500.  I  have  already  cited  the  nature  of 
the  offenses  for  which  they  are  punished. 

I  have  mentioned  these  facts,  not  because  I 
wish  to  throw  discredit  upon  the  Magyars,  for 


THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

government  and  people  are  usually  two  different 
things  ;  but  because  I  wish  to  throw  light  upon 
these  Slovaks  who  come  to  us  to  do  our  most 
menial  work  and  whose  worth  is  obscured  by 
our  not  knowing  them.  Their  clannishness,  the 
tenacity  with  which  they  cling  to  their  native 
speech,  and  their  attitude  towards  our  Christian 
and  national  institutions,  find  some  explanation 
in  the  miseries  they  have  endured  for  the  sake  of 
preserving  some  kind  of  national  or  racial  entity. 

I  consider  these  Slovaks  among  the  most  un- 
spoiled of  all  the  Slavic  peoples  ;  low  in  the  scale 
of  culture,  it  is  true,  but  of  such  innate  goodness 
and  possessing  so  many  virtues,  as  to  make  them 
most  desirable  immigrants  and  splendid  material 
upon  which  to  graft  the  best  of  our  Christian 
civilization. 

Like  all  Western  Slavs  they  are  largely  Roman 
Catholic,  but  with  enough  of  the  Protestant  ele- 
ment mixed  with  it  to  have  given  evangelical 
faith  a  grappling  place. 

This  broader  vision  with  its  ethical  element  has 
been  transferred  from  America  to  the  Slovaks 
in  Hungary  and  is  now  manifesting  itself  in  a 
company  of  people,  which,  though  small,  is  so 
thoroughly  in  earnest  and  ethical  as  to  prove 
that  they  can  be  brought  into  harmony  with  the 
most  vital  religious  ideals. 

Ruthenians,  or  Ukranians,  as  they  call  them- 
selves, who  belong  to  the  Eastern  Slavic  group, 


The  SLAV  in  HISTORIC  CHRISTIANITY  225 

are  a  most  unhappy  people ;  degraded  by  adverse 
economic  and  religious  conditions,  worse  if  pos- 
sible than  those  of  the  most  debased  Russians 
whose  closest  kinsmen  they  are.  In  Austria  a 
majority  belongs  to  the  Greek  Catholic  church, 
which  is  a  union  of  the  Greek  Orthodox  and  the 
Roman  Catholic  churches,  maintaining  distinct 
Byzantine  dogmas  and  acknowledging  the  su- 
premacy of  the  Pope. 

There  are  about  34,000,000  of  these  people, 
numerically  more  important  than  the  Poles,  by 
whom  a  portion  is  governed  or  ill  governed  and 
persecuted.  Neither  have  they  any  chance  for 
full  development  in  Russia  where  the  largest  num- 
ber lives  ;  nor  in  Hungary,  where  they  make  their 
home  on  the  eastern  slopes  of  the  Carpathians. 
They  are  now  struggling  for  the  maintenance 
of  their  national  consciousness  and  are  bearing 
all  the  unfortunate  consequences. 

In  the  United  States  their  protest  has  taken 
form  politically,  in  a  National  Ukranian  Society, 
and  religiously,  in  a  Ruthenian  Free  Church,  and 
both  deserve  sympathetic  aid  from  those  who 
believe  in  political  and  religious  freedom. 

The  great  task  of  religion  in  its  ministry  to  the 
Slav,  and  that  no  matter  what  its  ancient  form  or 
symbol,  will  be  to  make  clear  to  him  the  difference 
between  God  and  Caesar  ;  for  religion  and  nation- 
ality, Heaven  and  the  throne,  are  confused  in 
his  mind 


226  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

It  must  also  teach  him  that  besides  its  sacra- 
mental value  it  has  service  value,  whose  obliga- 
tions rest  upon  priest  and  people  alike. 

Religion  must  wean  him  from  his  ancient 
enemies,  intemperance  and  superstition,  and 
when  it  has  done  this,  it  has  rendered  a  service 
which  may  again  make  of  the  Slavs  a  homogene- 
ous race ;  great,  vital,  virile  and  well  prepared  to 
play  a  leading  part  in  the  future  history  of  Europe 
as  well  as  America,  where  they  are  now,  numer- 
ically at  least,  the  most  important  element  in  the 
great  immigrant  tide. 


XVI 

FROM  EPHRATA  TO  WHISKEY  HILL 

THAT  portion  of  our  history,  which  began 
with  the  inflow  of  Germans  from  the 
Palatinate,  seems  to  most  of  us  a  closed 
chapter ;  yet  in  the  very  heart  of  the  Keystone 
State,  where  more  than  200  years  ago  the 
German  pietist  began  to  build  its  cities,  since 
grown  to  greatness,  the  German  is  still  a  for- 
eigner. 

Indeed,  he  is  almost  as  complete  a  foreigner  as 
the  Slav  who  lives  in  the  mining  patches  along 
the  Wyoming  and  Susquehanna  Rivers.  Ger- 
manic speech,  habits  and  types  survive,  and  it  was 
in  a  crowded  trolley  car  in  Reading,  Pa.,  just  after 
I  had  finished  a  wearisome  investigation  among 
the  Slavs,  that  a  woman  of  generously  Teutonic 
proportions  said  to  me :  "  Setz  dich  a  mahl  zu 
mir  her." 

Let  me  add  that  although  I  had  never  seen 
the  lady  before,  I  obeyed  the  summons.  First, 
because  there  was  no  other  seat  vacant,  and, 
second,  because  I  have  been  long  enough  in 
America  to  obey  implicitly  when  a  lady  com- 
mands. 

"  Du  acts  wie  ein  stranger,"  the  good  woman 
227 


228  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

continued,  taking  my  hand  ;  and  then,  discover- 
ing that  I  had  a  right  to  act  like  a  stranger,  she 
apologized  profusely.  She  had  mistaken  me  for 
her  family  physician.  In  spite  of  her  evident 
embarrassment,  we  began  a  conversation,  and 
my  ears,  accustomed  as  they  now  are  to  our 
rather  monotonous  and  uneuphonic  English,  re- 
freshed themselves  by  listening  to  this  new 
speech — Pennsylvania  Dutch.  It  required  think- 
ing in  two  languages,  and  that  in  their  most 
archaic  forms. 

Four  generations  had  passed  since  my  neigh- 
bour's ancestors  came  to  this  country ;  yet  her 
English,  whenever  she  attempted  it,  smacked 
strongly  of  the  Fatherland,  and  in  an  unguarded 
moment,  when  my  sentences  seemed  to  her 
rather  involved,  she  said,  "  Du  talkst  a  bissel  zu 
fast." 

The  trolley  took  us  through  the  manufacturing 
centre  of  Reading  and  out  into  the  fruitful  fields 
of  Lancaster  County,  and  the  further  I  travelled 
in  that  state  the  more  I  realized  the  difference 
between  the  old  and  the  new  Pennsylvania,  even 
in  the  names  called  into  my  ears  by  the  prosaic 
conductor.  Philadelphia  does  not  now  suggest 
Bible  times  so  much  as  it  might ;  but  there  are 
Bethlehem,  Nazareth,  Emmaus,  and  Ephrata, 
each  name  suggesting  at  once  a  sacred  atmos- 
phere. Then  for  the  new  Pennsylvania  are  the 
names  of  Johnstown,  Coalton,  Scranton,  and 


FROM  EPHRATA  to  WHISKEY  HILL    229 

Steelton,  besides  those  yet  unplaced  on  the 
map — names  like  Hunkeytown,  Guinea  Hill, 
Dago  Roost,  and  Whiskey  Hill,  squatted  close 
to  the  mines,  flanked  by  culm  heaps  and  huge 
breakers,  and  cut  through  and  through  by 
ravines  and  dirt-clogged  rivers.  All  these  towns 
are  destined  to  disappear  long  before  the  last 
lumps  of  coal  dug  there,  are  burned. 

The  trolley  stopped  at  Ephrata,  and  my 
neighbour,  who  had  been  in  Reading,  "  bargains 
zu  kaufe  im  grosse  schtore,"  left  the  car ;  but 
not  without  admonishing  me  to  be  sure  to  see 
the  cloister  of  the  German  Baptist  Brothers, 
which,  she  said,  "  is  a  grosse  sight."  I  needed 
no  admonition,  for  I  was  there  on  a  pilgrimage. 
I  had  come,  to  stand  face  to  face  with  a 
great  past,  to  visit  the  old  haunts  of  these 
German  mystics,  to  lose  myself  in  the  all-per- 
vading peace  of  Ephrata,  after  having  been  in 
the  thick  of  the  great  industrial  war,  whose  pres- 
ence was  attested  even  here  by  the  cloud  of  smoke 
on  the  western  horizon.  This  cloud  of  smoke, 
although  changing  into  a  pillar  of  fire  by  night, 
does  not  seem  to  be  the  guide  out  of  captivity. 
I  suppose  one  easily  reads  something  into  the 
atmosphere  of  a  place  ;  but  I  am  sure  that,  even 
without  the  pilgrim  spirit  which  brought  me 
there,  I  should  have  recognized  Ephrata  as  one 
of  the  places  in  which  dreamers  have  built  air 
castles  ,  and  these  are  castles  which  have  founda- 


230  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

tions.  The  archaeologist  does  not  see  them  in 
the  dust;  but  the  sociologist,  if  he  has  a  sensitive 
spirit,  feels  them,  especially  if  he  has  come  from 
a  week's  study  of  Whiskey  Hill. 

One  of  the  men  who  has  written  of  Ephrata 
before  me  says :  "  There  is  nothing  peculiar 
about  the  village  itself,  or  its  people."  He 
evidently  had  no  "  inner  sense,"  and,  moreover, 
he  had  never  been  at  Whiskey  Hill.  Not  only 
is  the  air  of  Ephrata  "  salubrious  and  the  out- 
look delightful,"  the  street  is  full  of  gabled 
houses  one  close  upon  the  other.  Some  of  them 
are  commonplace  indeed  ;  but  many  of  them  are 
quaint  and  clean,  with  deep-set  windows  full  of 
flower-pots,  the  green  foliage  shining  through 
latticed  panes,  in  rich  contrast  to  the  white  snow 
almost  up  to  the  window-sills.  And  the  people 
one  sees — "  commonplace  "  ?  People  who  for 
nearly  two  hundred  years  have  ciung  tenaciously 
to  a  strange  garb,  in  the  midst  of  a  "  perverse 
and  crooked  generation,"  bent  upon  changing 
the  cut  of  its  coats  with  every  passing  season  ? 
Women  who  wear  brown  bonnets  and  look  as 
modest  as  thrushes,  whom  one  sees  in  single  file 
following  the  men  ;  women  who  have  resisted  the 
allurements  of  pokes  and  toques  and  picture  hats 
for  two  hundred  years — such  women  common- 
place ?  Such  women  are  as  remarkable  as  they 
are  rare,  and  such  there  are  in  Ephrata. 

As  I  watched  them  they  were  going  to  the 


FROM  EPHRATA  to  WHISKEY  HILL    231 

modest  meeting-house  at  the  edge  of  the  village. 
I  did  not  follow  them,  for  my  way  led  straight 
down  the  main  street  which  ends  in  the  turnpike, 
over  which  a  toll-gate  still  hangs.  The  gate- 
keeper sits  in  a  little  hut  among  his  cronies, 
smoking  the  native  weed  and  talking  politics — 
and  he  who  is  acquainted  with  the  quality  of 
either  ought  to  know  that  they  are  strangely 
alike. 

"The  cloisters  are  across  the  meadow,"  the 
toll-keeper  informed  me.  And,  pointing  to  one 
of  his  companions,  a  man  of  uncertain  age  and  a 
rather  doubtful  degree  of  cleanliness,  he  said  : 
"  And  he  lives  in  one  of  them." 

"  I  am  not  a  member,"  the  man  volunteered, 
apologetically.  "  My  wife  is." 

This  alone  proved  him  a  modern  and  common- 
place. I  left  him  disgustedly,  and,  stepping  over 
the  stile,  walked  through  the  snow-covered 
meadow  and  along  the  shores  of  the  Cocalico 
towards  a  group  of  rather  ill-shaped,  weather- 
beaten  buildings  which  suggested  a  deserted 
farm  more  than  a  cloister.  The  momentary  dis- 
appointment vanishes,  however,  as  soon  as  one 
has  a  clear  view  of  the  peaked-roof  buildings  in 
which  no  outer  beauty  is  visible,  but  which,  with 
their  low  doors,  narrow  cells,  and  roped  stairway, 
recall  to  him  who  knows,  the  "  Chronicon  Eph- 
ratense,"  the  groping  of  this  Brotherhood  after 
the  blessed  life  here  below,  seeking  communion 


232  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

with  God  in  self-denial,  in  good  works  and  pious 
songs.  These  Brothers  fell  into  all  the  errors  of 
Christendom  and  practiced  many  of  its  virtues 
in  a  single  generation.  Conrad  Beisel,  a  German 
mystic,  came  here  to  live  as  an  anchorite.  His 
pious  life  drew  others  to  him,  and  they  progressed 
to  monasticism. 

When  women  found  them,  they  all  became 
celibates.  They  were  close  to  every  heresy 
which  threatened  the  early  Church,  and  were  not 
far  from  worshipping  Conrad  Beisel  as  a  reincar- 
nation of  Christ ;  while  in  the  mystic  Sophia  they 
came  close  to  the  adoration  of  the  Virgin.  They 
practiced  communism  successfully  for  over  half  a 
century,  and  branded  property  as  sin  long  before 
Proudhon  declared  it  to  be  theft.  They  printed 
Bibles,  wrote  ecstatic  hymns,  developed  to  a  re- 
markable degree  the  art  of  illuminating  letters, 
and  organized  a  Sunday-school  in  which  they 
used  some  of  the  so-called  modern  methods,  such 
as  promotion  cards,  long  before  the  thought  came 
into  the  mind  of  Robert  Raikes,  the  founder  of 
the  Sunday-school  of  to-day.  They  were  chaste, 
frugal,  and  non-resistant.  One  of  them,  Peter 
Miller,  the  successor  of  Conrad  Beisel,  went  to 
George  Washington  to  plead  for  the  remittance 
of  the  death  penalty  of  a  man,  Michael  Wildman, 
accused  of  treason.  The  General  told  Peter 
Miller  that  the  severest  penalty  must  be  dealt 
out  at  a  time  like  that. 


FROM  EPHRATA  to  WHISKEY  HILL    233 

"  If  it  were  not  so,  I  would  gladly  release  your 
friend." 

" Friend  1"  replied  Miller;  "he  is  the  only 
enemy  I  have." 

This,  it  is  said,  made  such  an  impression 
on  General  Washington  that  the  pardon  was 
granted. 

I  lingered  in  the  "  Saal,"  the  place  of  worship. 
Simple  and  small  it  is,  with  plain  pine  pews,  the 
beamed  ceiling  hanging  far  into  the  room.  The 
walls  are  covered  by  charts  on  which,  in  exquisite 
ornamental  lettering,  Scripture  verses  and  some 
of  the  mystic  poetry  of  the  Brothers  are  written. 
There  are  also  allegorical  pictures,  naively 
drawn  by  the  pen,  suggesting  the  thought  that 
in  time  a  new  school  of  religious  art  might  have 
been  developed  here. 

Scarcely  half  a  dozen  worshippers,  I  was  told 
by  the  cronies  at  the  toll-gate,  gather  here  on 
Saturday ;  for  the  sect  is  that  of  the  Seventh  Day 
Dunkards,  or  German  Baptists,  and  it  cannot  be 
very  long  before  this  sanctuary  will  be  empty 
and  forsaken  and  its  ruin  complete. 

I  braved  the  snow-banks  and  waded  through 
an  unmarked  path  towards  the  cemetery  where 
they  shall  all  soon  lie.  I  wandered  among  the 
graves,  among  those  who  long  ago  went  to  their 
rest  and  their  reward.  Here  among  others  are 
the  Sisters  Iphigenia  and  Anastasia  and  the 
Brothers  Daniel  and  Gabriel,  the  headstones  of 


234  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

their  graves  quite  covered  by  the  snow.  In  the 
centre  of  the  cemetery  a  stone  sarcophagus  rises 
above  the  snow.  It  seems  to  have  withstood  the 
ravaging  tooth  of  time,  for  it  stands  squarely 
upon  the  ground.  I  brushed  aside  as  best  I 
could  the  snow  which  covered  the  tablet,  and 
read :  "  Here  rests  an  outgrowth  of  the  love  of 
God,  a  solitary  brother,  afterwards  a  leader, 
ruler,  teacher  of  the  solitary  and  the  congregation 
of  Christ  in  and  around  Ephrata.  Born  in  Eber- 
bach,  in  the  Palatinate.  Called  by  his  worldly 
name,  Conrad  Beisel ;  but  according  to  his  spir- 
itual name,  '  Friedsam,'  the  peaceful  one." 

The  snow  and  the  frost  clung  closely.  I  could 
not  read  it  all,  but  I  saw  plainly  the  beautiful  Ger- 
man letters  cut  deep  into  the  stone.  "  Friedsam  " 
— it  was  this  word  which  took  me  back  to  Whiskey 
Hill. 

"  Friedsam."  No  one  could  be  called  that  on 
Whiskey  Hill.  Weather-beaten  wooden  buildings 
there  are,  scaffolded  structures,  shaken  by  the 
vibration  of  coal-crushing  machinery  within. 
From  their  third  or  fourth  stories  down,  young 
boys  sit  before  troughs,  along  which  the  coal 
rushes  and  rumbles  and  tumbles.  Nine  hours  a 
day,  in  an  atmosphere  black  as  night  from  coal 
dust,  sitting  in  a  cramped  and  unnatural  position, 
the  breaker-boys  pick  slate  from  the  falling  coal 
by  the  light  of  smoky  oil  lamps  directly  under 
their  nostrils.  Nine  hours  of  this,  and  many  of 


FROM  EPHRATA  to  WHISKEY  HILL    235 

these  boys,  mere  children,  although  sworn  to  be 
the  legal  age,  which  is  fourteen,  walk  homeward 
like  old  men.  They  look  so  weary,  so  old,  so 
wizened  1  They  surely  are  not  "  Friedsam." 

An  old  man  climbs  down  the  breaker.  He, 
too,  is  now  a  breaker  "  boy."  Only  about  fifty- 
six  years  of  age,  unfit  for  the  harder  work  in  the 
mine,  he  picks  slate  from  the  larger  lumps.  He 
clings  to  a  bit  of  broken  fence  as  soon  as  the 
fresh  air  strikes  him  and  coughs  so  violently 
that  his  paroxysm  shakes  the  fence.  The  boys 
stand  about,  jeering ;  but  when  a  clot  of  blood 
comes  from  the  old  man's  mouth,  and  another 
followed  by  a  stream,  the  boys  take  to  their 
heels. 

"  Prach,  dust,  got  into  my  lungs,"  the  Slovak 
miner  says.  "  It  can't  last  much  longer." 
Looking  after  the  boys,  and  then  pointing  to 
himself,  he  adds,  "  The  beginning  and  the  end  of 
the  breaker-boy." 

I  shall  never  forget  the  pain  written  on  that 
man's  face  as  he  told  me  that  he  came  to  this 
country,  a  young  Slovak  boy  from  a  village  by 
the  river  Waag,  strong  and  full  of  health.  He  is 
giving  his  life-blood  drop  by  drop,  drop  by  drop, 
for  our  enrichment.  He  is  unable  to  walk  home ; 
so  I  lead  him.  Home  !  This  is  his  home.  A 
gray,  weather-beaten  hut,  one  of  thirty,  standing 
on  a  slant  of  the  hillside,  surrounded  by  culm 
piles,  black  and  forbidding.  There  is  a  street, 


236  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

deeply  sunk  in  mire ;  for  there  is  no  sewerage, 
and  a  sickening  green  scum  has  gathered  in  front 
of  every  house.  I  say  there  is  no  sewerage — 
there  is  not  even  a  decent  ditch  which  might 
carry  the  foul  stuff  away. 

The  hut  has  three  stories,  the  lowest  one  built 
into  the  hillside,  with  windows  only  to  the  front  ; 
the  rest  of  the  rooms  are  damp  and  cold,  not  even 
fit  for  the  storing  of  vegetables.  In  one  of  these 
holes  lives  the  old,  consumptive  breaker-boy. 
Surely  this  suggests  nothing  "Friedsam." 

There  are  thousands  and  tens  of  thousands 
such  "  homes  "  in  Pennsylvania,  all  the  way  from 
Pittsburg  to  Whiskey  Hill.  Each  one  of  them 
brings  rich  revenue  to  somebody,  and  all  of  them 
reap  a  rich  harvest  of  death.  Six,  eight,  and  ten 
dollars'  rent  a  month  is  paid  by  these  miners  for 
a  place  in  which  they  often  die  by  inches. 

The  battle  against  filth  is  not  everywhere  zeal- 
ously prosecuted  ;  but  I  challenge  any  American 
woman  to  do  better  than  some  of  these  Slovak 
women  on  Whiskey  Hill.  Let  me  take  you  into 
one  such  home — and  I  came  upon  it  more  often 
than  you  may  think.  The  room  is  freshly  pa- 
pered, the  work  done  by  the  miner';s  wife,  and 
not  ill  done.  The  floor  is  scrupulously  clean ; 
gorgeous  pictures  of  the  saints  hang  on  the  wall ; 
there  is  a  sewing-machine,  and  a  woman  busy  at 
her  task  of  making  shirts  for  her  miner  husband. 

There  are  two  rooms,  occupied  by  a  family  of 


THE  SLAVIC  HOME  IN  HUNGARY 

A  peaceful,  little  village  surrounded  by  fields  of  poppies  and  maize. 


THE  SLAVIC  HOME  ON  WHISKEY  HILL 
Flanked  by  culm  piles,  breakers  and  mines. 


FROM  EPHRATA  to  WHISKEY  HILL    237 

five,  and  four  boarders.  I  know  the  home  of  this 
woman  in  Hungary,  and  the  very  village  from 
which  she  comes.  I  know  the  clean,  straw- 
thatched  cottage,  the  broad,  dusty  street,  and  the 
waving  poppy-field  back  of  the  house  ;  and  I  ask, 
"  How  are  you  getting  along  on  Whiskey  Hill  ?  " 
This  is  the  woman's  reply :  "  Chvala  Bohu  dobre." 
Thank  God,  very  well.  I  have  never  seen  a 
more  beautiful  and  grateful  smile  pass  over  a 
face,  and  have  never  heard  a  sentence  which 
more  fully  suggested ''  Friedsam  "  ;  but  suddenly 
her  fac^  ifrows  Jark  ;  sne  hears  the  noise  of  hur- 
r  ing  dorses  and  the  beating  of  wheels  against 
the  rocky  street.  "  The  ambulance  1  O  Virgin 
Mother,  protect  me  1 "  she  cries  ;  for  the  ambu- 
lance stops  at  her  door,  and  they  bring  in  the 
mangled  body  of  her  husband. 

He  went  out  a  few  hours  ago  and  she  was 
"  Naomi " — now  he  is  brought  home,  and  she  is 
"  Marah."  Bitter,  very  bitter. 

What  happens  next  on  Whiskey  Hill  ?  Do 
people  grow  excited  ?  Do  the  neighbours  come 
rushing  in  ?  Do  the  newspapers  in  the  town  at 
the  foot  of  Whiskey  Hill  take  notice  how  this 
"  Hunkey "  came  to  his  death  ?  No,  indeed. 
Nothing  happens.  The  woman  laments  alone, 
even  as  another  Marah  laments  alone  in  a  similar 
row  on  another  ridge.  There  are  ten  women 
anything  but  "  Friedsam  " ;  for  on  a  neighbouring- 
hill  their  husbands  were  slain  together,  by  the  fall 


238  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

of  one  huge  rock  or  the  same  powder  blast 
"  And  nothing  happens  ?  "  Yes,  something  hap- 
pens. The  coroner's  jury  is  summoned,  and 
brings  in  the  verdict ;  the  same  verdict  always, 
with  slight  variations,  rendered  ever  since  the 
great  companies  absorbed  the  anthracite  industry. 
This  is  it : 

"  Martin  Horvat,  aged  forty-two,  came  to  his 
death  by  a  fall  of  rock  in  Mine  No.  2  on  Whiskey 
Hill,  January  30,  1908.  The  jury  finds  that  the 
company  should  have  provided  the  deceased  a 
safe  place  to  work  in.  It  was  not  the  duty  of  the 
deceased  to  pass  on  the  safety  of  the  roof.  The 
deceased  is  not  to  blame."  (What  a  comfort  1) 
"  We  further  find  that  the  place  in  which  the  de- 
ceased worked  should  have  been  properly  tim- 
bered "  (which  it  was  not  when  the  accident  oc- 
curred), "  but  we  do  not  find  that  the  company  was 
to  blame." 

Who  was  to  blame?  The  deceased  was  not, 
the  company  was  not  I  have  it — the  rock  was 
to  blame.  Somebody  in  Wilkes-Barre  said,  in 
answer  to  my  query ;  "  These  Hungarians  are 
so  ignorant."  I  see  now — ignorance  was  to 
blame. 

Every  day  there  are  funerals  on  Whiskey  Hill, 
and  after  the  funeral  a  feast,  and  after  the  feast  a 
glorious  spree.  Whiskey  Hill  has  earned  its 
name,  although  it  might  be  called  Beer  Hill  just 
as  appropriately.  The  saloons  not  only  outnum- 


FROM  EPHRATA  to  WHISKEY  HILL    239 

her  the  churches;  they  outnumber  the  stores, 
schools,  churches,  undertakers'  shops,  and  culm 
hills  combined,  and  a  man  might  make  a  living 
by  picking  up  the  empty  beer  barrels  that  lie  in 
the  ravines.  There  are  enough  empty  bottles 
lying  in  the  runs,  to  clog  the  flow  of  the  creek  in 
the  spring,  when  the  current  becomes  strong 
enough  to  make  its  way  through  the  ooze  and 
slime. 

Ignorance  and  beer  are  to  blame — and  avarice, 
especially  avarice.  For  the  first  two  the  miner  is 
to  blame,  but  only  in  part.  This  ignorance  is  an 
inheritance,  often  a  condition  arising  from  the 
fact  that  he  is  in  a  strange  country,  to  whose  lan- 
guage he  is  deaf  and  dumb.  The  drinking,  too, 
is  an  inheritance,  and  often  also  a  condition  aris- 
ing from  the  circumstances  under  which  he  must 
live  and  work. 

Granting,  however,  that  he  is  ignorant  and  in- 
temperate, up  here  on  Whiskey  Hill  and  on  hun- 
dreds of  other  hills  no  attempt  is  being  made  by 
any  one  to  dispel  this  ignorance.  Neither  his 
masters  nor  his  priests  are  doing  it.  His  priests, 
perhaps,  are  more  content  with  his  ignorance 
than  his  masters,  for  to  the  master  he  might  be 
worth  more  if  he  knew  more.  The  priest  is  sure 
of  the  opposite  result  as  far  as  he  is  concerned. 
No  one  on  Whiskey  Hill  tries  to  curb  intemper- 
ance by  teaching  the  "  Hunkey  "  the  hurt  of  it  to 
his  bank  account,  to  his  body,  to  his  chances  of 


240  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

coming  alive  out  of  the  mine.  His  priest  usually 
drinks  freely,  and  many  a  saloon  license  in  Penn- 
sylvania bears  the  signature  of  the  priest  as  one 
of  the  petitioners. 

Even  those  people  who  are  eager  to  make  laws 
to  curb  or  prohibit  the  sale  of  liquor,  ignore  en- 
tirely the  education  of  the  "  Hunkey,"  although 
he  is  now,  and  more  and  more  will  be,  a  great 
factor  in  the  political  and  social  life  of  the  state. 

Avarice  is  to  my  mind  the  basic  fault  in  all  the 
history  of  accidents  in  the  mines  of  Pennsylvania. 
It  is  an  avarice  which  thinks  human  life  cheaper 
than  timber,  and  considers  it  easier  to  pay  funeral 
expenses  than  to  support  schools  and  pay  teachers. 
It  corrupts  politicians  to  the  degree  that  there  is 
seemingly  nothing  more  to  corrupt ;  and  if  half 
the  charges  are  true  that  are  made  openly  by  the 
newspapers  in  the  coal  regions,  against  the  mine 
inspectors,  they  certainly  are  hopelessly  debased. 

Of  the  one  thousand  people  slain  annually  in 
the  anthracite  coal  region,  two-thirds  are  charge- 
able to  one  of  three  causes :  ignorance,  intemper- 
ance, and  avarice.  Inasmuch  as  these  causes 
could  in  a  large  degree  be  removed  by  the  peo- 
ple of  Pennsylvania,  it  follows  that  the  people  are 
to  blame. 

Twenty-three  thousand  lives  have  been  sacri- 
ficed in  the  coal-mining  industry  in  the  United 
States  in  about  ten  years !  Read  it  again  I 
Twenty-three  thousand  people  had  to  give  up 


FROM  EPHRATA  to  WHISKEY  HILL    241 

their  lives  for  the  light  and  heat  and  speed  which 
we  enjoyed  in  the  last  ten  years.  Twenty-three 
thousand  men  I  Almost  I  envy  the  Brothers 
Daniel  and  Gabriel  and  the  Sisters  Iphigenia  and 
Anastasia  the  time  in  which  they  lived,  when  the 
waters  of  the  Cocalico  turned  their  wheels,  when 
they  printed  books  and  illumined  letters,  when 
they  could  do  their  share  in  pushing  this  world 
forward  without  sacrificing  the  lives  of  an  army 
of  men  to  what  we  call  progress. 

That  time  will  never  return,  in  spite  of  Rous- 
seau and  Ruskin  and  Tolstoy ;  but  we  must  have 
a  time,  and  have  it  soon,  when  we  shall  be  able 
to  do  all  that  we  are  doing  without  such  slaughter. 
Nothing  is  worth  doing  and  nothing  is  worth 
having  unless,  like  Conrad  Beisel,  we  have  a 
"  new  name  in  the  Lord."  For  myself,  if  I  lived 
in  Pennsylvania,  it  should  not  be  "  Friedsam  " 
but  "  Streitsam  " — not  the  peaceful  one,  but  the 
fighter. 


XVII 

FROM  THE  LOVCZIN  TO  GUINEA  HILL 

ACCORDING  to  ordinary  railway  stand- 
ards the  car  was  only  half  full,  for  each 
passenger  was  the  fortunate  possessor 
of  an  entire  seat.  Reluctantly  enough,  one  or 
the  other  of  my  fellow  travellers  gave  to  some 
newcomer  the  space  which  allowed  him  some 
freedom  for  the  movements  of  his  body ;  but 
when  a  dozen  foreigners  entered  the  car  at  a 
wayside  station,  every  man  and  woman  moved 
defiantly  to  the  outer  edge  of  the  seat,  deter- 
mined that  not  one  of  the  intruders  should  share 
it 

Ordinarily  the .  conductor  sees  to  it  that  such 
monopoly  of  privilege  is  properly  rebuked ;  but 
this  time  he  apologized  for  the  presence  of  the 
immigrants  by  saying  that  the  smoking-car  was 
"jam  full  of  Dagos  already." 

Meekly  enough,  the  men  stood  in  the  aisle, 
glad  of  the  privilege  of  standing  in  the  car,  which 
carried  them  from  the  scene  of  their  labours  to  the 
distant  city  where  the  signora  and  the  bambini 
awaited  them.  I  made  room  for  one  of  the 
men,  and  for  a  time  employed  all  my  senses  to 
discover  if  possible  the  reason  for  their  receiving 

242 


From  The  LOVCZIN  to  GUINEA  HILL    243 

such  treatment.  I  smelled  neither  garlic  nor 
whiskey,  although  I  was  soon  engaged  in  conver- 
sation with  my  neighbour  and  thus  had  a  good 
chance  to  detect  either. 

He  wore  blue  jeans  overalls,  which,  while  not 
stylish  garments,  are  certainly  honest  clothing. 
There  was  no  crease  down  the  middle,  but  they 
had  creases  all  over.  His  hands  were  not  un- 
clean ;  although  the  soil  of  honest  labour  was 
upon  them. 

In  no  way  was  he  different  from  the  American 
working  man  of  the  same  class,  except  that  he 
did  not  chew  tobacco  and  therefore  did  not  in- 
dulge in  the  practice  which  usually  accompanies 
that  accomplishment. 

In  order  to  ascertain  what  chances  there  were 
for  English  conversation,  I  addressed  him  in 
that  language,  and  his  answers  in  broken  English 
were  certainly  more  entertaining  than  the  abrupt 
"  yes  "  or  "  no  "  which  one  often  receives  from 
the  native  fellow  traveller,  to  whom  it  is  usually 
a  matter  of  indifference  whether  or  not  the  time 
hangs  heavily  on  one's  hands. 

At  the  next  station  the  smoking-car  was  re- 
lieved of  its  surplus  passengers,  and  my  neigh- 
bour with  all  his  countrymen  was  driven  into  it 
with  rough  gestures.  I  am  very  proud  of  the 
courage  I  displayed  by  turning  in  my  seat  and 
addressing  the  man  who  sat  behind  me. 

"  Won't  you   please   tell  me,"  I  said,  hesita- 


244  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

tingly,  "  why  you  wouldn't  share  your  seat  with 
one  of  those  men  ?  "  I  fully  expected  him  to  say, 
"  It's  none  of  your  business/'  but  his  stern  face 
relaxed  for  a  moment  as  he  replied,  with  a  rising 
inflection,  "  Dagos,"  and  then  looked  as  stern  as 
before. 

I  was  not  satisfied  by  that  answer  and  said  so. 
This  opened  the  way  for  an  argument,  and  con- 
versation was  soon  in  full  swing. 

"  What  right  have  those  Dagos  to  come  to 
this  country,  anyway  ? "  he  retorted,  when  I 
pleaded  that  those  men  had  paid  their  fares  and 
had  the  same  right  that  he  had,  to  a  seat.  I 
soon  discovered  that  neither  logic  nor  ethics 
was  his  strong  point ;  so  I  thought  I  would  try 
him  on  history. 

"  Do  you  know,"  I  asked,  "  who  was  the  first 
'  Dago '  that  came  to  this  country  ? "  For  a 
moment  he  put  his  thinking  apparatus  to  work  ; 
then  he  said,  and  I  am  quoting  his  words 
exactly : 

"  I  suppose  it  was  somebody  by  the  name  of 
Macaroni,  who  sold  bananas  when  he  landed 
in  New  York,  and  talked  an  outlandish  gibber- 
ish." 

"  No,"  I  replied,  "  his  name  was  Christopher 
Columbus,  and  if  it  had  not  been  for  that 
'  Dago,'  you  would  still  be  undiscovered." 

I  had  great  difficulty  in  making  my  fellow 
traveller  believe  that  there  are  cities  in  Italy 


from  The  LOVCZIN  to  GUINEA  HILL     245 

more  beautiful  than  Pittsburg ;  but  when  I  told 
him  that  a  "  Dago  "  built  the  largest  church  in  the 
world,  his  materialistic  sense  was  touched  and 
he  began  to  listen  respectfully  to  what  I  said. 

"  The  same  '  Dago '  who  built  that  church 
carved  statuary  so  beautiful  that  whenever  any 
man  wishes  to  free  the  '  imprisoned  splendour  of 
the  stone '  (I  did  not  quote  Michael  Angelo  to 
him,  however),  he  has  to  go  to  see  what  that 
4  Dago  '  has  done. 

"  And  that  same  man,"  I  continued,  "  painted 
a  ceiling  which  is  one  of  the  great  art  wonders 
of  the  world.  His  name  is  Michael  Angelo." 

"  I  never  heard  of  him." 

"  I  know  of  another  '  Dago,' "  I  continued, 
emphasizing  "Dago,"  "who  painted  a  picture 
for  which  even  you  might  be  willing  to  pay  $500." 

"  I'd  like  to  see  it !  " 

When  I  mentioned  Raphael  and  the  Sistine 
Madonna,  he  did  have  some  vague  idea  of  what 
I  was  trying  to  convey  to  him  ;  for  these  were 
fairly  familiar  names. 

Then  he  fell  upon  me  savagely.  "  But  you 
don't  mean  to  say  that  these  '  Dagos '  that  come 
over  here  are  anything  like  Michael  Angelo  or 
Raphael!"  To  which  I  replied:  "No,  they 
are  not ;  but  neither  are  you  anything  like 
George  Washington  or  Abraham  Lincoln." 
Then  I  returned  to  the  perusal  of  my  news- 
paper. 


246  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

That  man  was  an  average  American  of  the 
middle  class,  a  representative  of  the  bulk  of  our 
population,  and  he,  in  common  with  many  of 
his  countrymen,  is  criminally  ignorant  of  the 
people  who  will  soon  have  his  weal  and  woe  in 
their  hands. 

The  Italian,  the  Greek,  and  the  Syrian  are 
usually  called  by  the  classic  names  "  Dago," 
"  Roundhead,"  or  "  Guinea,"  and  the  Slavs,  be 
they  Poles,  Servians,  Slovaks,  or  Montenegrins, 
are  called  "  Hunyaks,"  "  Hunkies,"  and  "  Slabs  "  ; 
and  I  once  heard  the  owner  of  a  great  industrial 
establishment  call  them  "  Bohunks."  It  was  not 
an  ignorant  or  malicious  friend  of  mine  who 
said  of  a  Jew,  a  man  of  scholarly  attainment  and 
a  common  acquaintance,  "  He  is  a  pretty  decent 
Sheeny." 

I  have  no  quarrel  with  the  fact  that  the  average 
American  is  ignorant  of  the  historic  place  which 
these  people  hold  among  the  nations,  and  of  the 
great  age-long  struggle  through  which  some  of 
them  have  passed  and  are  still  passing,  that  they 
may  preserve  their  identity  as  a  people.  I  am 
thoroughly  incensed,  however,  that  nearly  every 
one  of  the  names  applied  to  them  is  an  expres- 
sion of  contempt,  an  offhand  judgment  of  inferi- 
ority. After  all,  it  is  not  even  that  which  makes 
me  take  up  the  cudgel  for  them,  because  they 
must  and  will  prove  for  themselves  that  they  are 
perfectly  human  like  the  rest  of  us,  and  that  in 


From  The  LOVCZIN  to  GUINEA  HILL     247 

all  essential  things  they  will  grow  like  us  as  soon 
as  they  have  the  same  privileges  which  we  have 
had,  who  came  after  the  first  "  Dago  "  had  dis- 
covered the  way  to  this  land  of  opportunity. 

What  really  does  burden  me  and  make  me  cry 
out  is  the  consequences  which  result  from  such 
ignorance  as  I  have  cited,  and  because  of  which 
I  was  on  that  train  travelling  to  Guinea  Hill. 

Guinea  Hill  differs  from  Whiskey  Hill  in  that  it 
bears  many  other  fantastic  names  and  in  that 
there  are  fewer  saloons.  The  beer-kegs  do  not 
lie  about  in  such  unpicturesque  confusion,  and 
the  Slavs  who  live  there  come  from  the  shores  of 
the  Adriatic  and  the  bleak  mountains  of  Mon- 
tenegro. The  huts  in  which  they  live  on  Guinea 
Hill  are  even  worse  than  those  of  the  earlier 
comers  from  the  north  of  the  Slavic  world.  I  am 
told  that  they  were  built  some  thirty  years  ago, 
and  no  sacrilegious  hand  has  touched  them 
since,  to  paint  them  or  to  change  their  original 
primitive,  dry-goods-box  architecture.  They 
seem  to  have  sunk  into  the  refuse  of  the  mines, 
and  the  sociological  investigators,  who  know  the 
housing  conditions  in  Pennsylvania,  declare  them 
to  be  "  the  worst  in  the  state,"  which  phrase 
would  be  eloquent  from  meaning  were  it  not  so 
common  as  to  lose  its  force. 

Living  in  these  wretched  huts  among  stunted 
trees,  the  leaves  of  which  are  shrivelled  and 
blackened  by  coal  dust,  I  found  young  men  with 


248  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

whom  I  had  walked  among  the  olive  groves 
near  Spalato.  These  young  men  had  rowed 
me  across  the  Boche  de  Cattero,  easily  the  most 
magnificent  bay  in  Southern  Europe,  and  had 
shared  with  me  the  luscious  figs  which  they 
carried  in  their  shirt  bosoms.  I  saw  many  a  man 
whom  I  first  knew  beneath  the  deep  shadow  of 
the  Lovozin,  the  historic  mountain  of  Montene- 
gro, whence  the  spirits  of  departed  heroes  still 
call  to  fight  against  Christianity's  hereditary  foe 
— the  Turk. 

When  last  I  saw  these  youths  they  wore  gar- 
ments of  red  and  white  cloth,  richly  embroidered, 
with  their  belts  full  of  costly  weapons  of  ancient 
pattern,  and  their  fierce  mustachios  stretching 
out  defiantly  like  long,  double-pointed  daggers. 
Here  on  Guinea  Hill  they  all  wear  the  sober 
garb  of  miners,  their  mustachios  are  shorn  of 
their  fierceness,  their  weapons  have  disappeared, 
their  shooting  is  done  in  the  darkness  of  the 
mine,  and  they  rarely  shed  any  blood  but  their 
own. 

I  went  to  Guinea  Hill  because  I  am  partly  re- 
sponsible for  the  presence  there  of  some  of  these 
Southern  Slavs.  Many  years  ago,  when  I  visited 
their  mountain  fastness,  numbers  of  them  were  at 
the  verge  of  starvation.  The  crops  on  their  scant 
fields  had  failed ;  fighting  the  Turk  had  grown  to 
be  a  fruitless  and  profitless  occupation ;  Russia, 
their  ally  and  the  godmother  of  their  little  prin- 


From  The  LOVCZIN  to  GUINEA  HILL     249 

cipality,  who  in  the  past  sent  thither  what  surplus 
of  foodstuffs  she  possessed,  was  herself  living  on 
borrowed  money  and  charity,  so  that  nothing  re- 
mained for  these  warriors  except  to  starve  or  seek 
for  work. 

I  suggested  to  Prince  Nicolas  that  he  permit 
them  to  go  to  the  "land  of  the  free  and  the  home 
of  the  brave."  Not  one  of  them,  however,  was 
then  willing  to  leave  his  rocky  cradle  home  for 
the  unknown  fabled  land  so  far  away,  and  they 
remained  on  their  bleak  mountains  to  take  half- 
rations  or  none,  waiting  for  the  realization  of 
Russia's  Asiatic  dream  in  which  lay  wrapped 
their  own  future.  The  Japanese  war  and  the 
subsequent  Russian  revolution  were  like  the 
eagles'  stirring  the  nest,  and  the  young  eagles 
began  to  flutter  in  the  exaltation  of  their  first 
flight,  as  they  sought  the  shores  of  our  far-away 
country.  Four  or  five  thousand  of  these  braves 
exchanged  the  hilt  of  the  sword  and  the  butt  of 
the  gun  for  the  shovel  and  the  pickax,  and  the 
shadow  of  the  towering  Lovczin  for  the  shadeless 
Pennsylvania  hills.  There  I  found  them  digging 
coal  as  bravely  as  they  had  fought  the  Turk,  but 
known  to  their  American  masters  only  as 
"  Hunkies  "  or  "  Guineas  " — no  one  discovering 
in  their  open,  honest  faces  a  superior  race — every 
one  scenting  in  them  drunkards,  brawlers,  and 
incendiaries. 

The  usual  results  of  such  ignorance  followed, 


250  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

in  that  they  have  been  treated  with  an  injustice 
which  makes  them  quite  unconscious  of  the  fact 
that  they  have  found  the  land  of  "  liberty,  equal- 
ity, and  fraternity."  I  have  verified  nearly  every 
complaint  which  they  have  made  to  me,  for  I 
know  how  easy  it  is  for  sensitive  men  to  exag- 
gerate their  wrongs  ;  but  I  found  that  they  knew 
only  about  half  of  what  they  suffered,  the  other 
half  being  mercifully  hidden  from  them  by  their 
ignorance  of  the  language  and  the  customs  of 
our  country. 

After  pay-days  and  feast-days  the  magistrates 
of  the  towns  around  seek  them  to  arrest  them, 
and  the  fine  they  must  pay  is  always  twice, 
three  times,  and  in  some  cases  ten  times  as  great 
as  that  imposed  upon  the  American  offenders. 
After  trials  which  make  a  Russian  military  court 
seem  fairly  decent,  they  are  railroaded  into  jails 
and  workhouses,  and  I  now  soberly  confess  that 
as  a  stranger  I  would  rather  fall  into  the  hands 
of  the  police  of  Moscow  or  St.  Petersburg  than 
into  those  of  the  protectors  of  the  law  in  most  of 
our  industrial  centres  in  Pennsylvania  and  out  of  it. 

The  citizens  of  Pennsylvania  may  be  comforted 
by  knowing  that  Indiana,  Ohio,  and  Illinois,  in 
their  lower  courts,  are  as  unjust  to  the  stranger 
as  their  own  state.  In  one  town  in  Ohio  there 
is,  or  was,  a  mayor  who  is  reputed  to  have  made 
$9,000  a  year  out  of  the  fines  imposed  upon  for- 
eigners for  petty  offenses,  usually  for  drunken- 


From  The  LOVCZIN  to  GUINEA  HILL    251 

ness  or  brawling.  This  ingenious  official  arrested 
alien  drunkards  under  the  statute  of  the  state 
which  allowed  him  to  fine  them  as  high  as  thirty 
dollars,  while  the  native  was  arrested  under  the 
statute  of  the  town  and  fined  three  dollars  for  his 
spree. 

The  Indianapolis  police  arrested  a  Slovak 
woman  for  the  heinous  crime  of  picking  up  coal 
on  the  tracks.  On  the  coldest  day  of  the  year 
she  was  taken  from  her  home  and  children  and 
driven  to  the  workhouse,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that 
she  was  in  an  advanced  stage  of  pregnancy. 
The  terrible  results  of  this  inhuman  treatment 
were,  of  course,  what  might  be  expected.  Such 
facts  have  led  the  citizens  to  organize  an  Immi- 
grant Protection  League,  which  makes  it  its  busi- 
ness to  see  that  the  immigrant  is  not  exploited 
by  the  courts. 

On  Guinea  Hill  every  "  Roundhead,"  as  he  is 
commonly  called,  despises  the  court  for  its  un- 
dignified procedures  and  its  perspicuous  dis- 
honesty. The  judges'  contempt  for  the  immi- 
grant, as  well  as  that  of  other  executive  officers, 
rankles  and  hurts  beyond  the  telling,  causing 
people  who  might  become  stanch,  loyal,  and  he- 
roic citizens,  to  hate  and  despise  our  institutions. 
If  in  time  of  turmoil  and  economic  distress  they 
become  lawless,  as  I  firmly  believe  they  will,  we 
shall  reap  only  what  we  have  sown.  In  our 
present  hysteria  about  Anarchy  it  is  well  to  re- 


252  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

member  that  it  feeds  on  injustice,  that  it  cannot 
grow — in  sane  minds  at  least — if  a  nation  deals 
out  justice  impartially,  and  that  it  would  die  out 
completely  if  as  a  people  we  would  live  some- 
where within  hailing  distance  of  Mount  Sinai. 

I  do  not  ask  any  sentimental  consideration  in 
our  law  courts  for  the  Slavic  or  the  Italian  of- 
fender. Deal  with  him  firmly ;  punish  him  if 
punish  we  must ;  but  let  the  man  who  steals  a 
coal  mine  be  not  dealt  with  more  leniently  than 
the  woman  who  picks  up  coal  on  the  track.  Let 
the  Jewish  thief  suffer,  if  he  has  stolen  the  rail- 
way's old  iron  ;  but  let  him  who  steals  a  whole 
railway  also  suffer  in  proportion  to  the  magnitude 
of  his  crime. 

I  have  asked  for  the  aliens,  and  shall  not  cease 
asking  until  I  am  heard  :  First,  that  we  learn  to 
know  them.  The  people  of  Montenegro,  Poland, 
Hungary,  and  Italy  are  worth  the  knowing.  If 
struggle  for  liberty  means  anything  in  the  char- 
acter of  a  nation,  then  these  people  have  charac- 
ter ;  for  their  fields  are  drenched  in  martyrs' 
blood.  Where  in  Hungary  the  poppy  grows 
reddest,  or  in  Italy  the  figs  are  most  luscious, 
there  the  common  people  have  shed  their  blood 
heroically. 

Besides  that  knowledge,  which,  if  it  did  no 
more  for  us,  would  at  least  enlarge  our  mental 
horizon,  I  ask  for  common,  fundamental  justice  ; 
not  only  for  the  sake  of  the  alien  but  for  our  own 


From  The  LOVCZIN  to  GUINEA  HILL    253 

sake.  I  ask  and  shall  continue  to  ask  for  justice 
— justice,  which  is  the  least  if  not  the  most  that 
we  are  capable  of  giving  them.  At  present 
I  do  not  ask,  for  I  cannot  expect  it,  that  enlight- 
ened justice  which  is  love,  the  divinest  human 
gift.  I  ask  for  just  plain,  common,  every-day 
justice. 

"  As  ye  would  that "  your  own  offenders  should 
be  done  by,  so  do  ye  even  unto  the  alien.  This 
is  as  far  from  the  Golden  Rule  as  Guinea  Hill  is 
from  the  Lovczin  ;  but  it  is  the  most  we  may  ex- 
pect, although  not  the  most  for  which  we  ought 
to  ask. 

Not  a  hundred  miles  away  from  Guinea  Hill, 
at  the  Hazleton  Young  Men's  Christian  Associa- 
tion, I  want  to  show  you  what  enlightened  jus- 
tice can  do  for  the  "  Roundhead."  I  came  down 
from  the  Hill  disheartened  and  sad,  and,  stepping 
into  the  office  of  that  rather  remarkable  Young 
Men's  Christian  Association  building,  I  saw  a 
man,  with  dust-cloth  and  broom,  walking  about 
with  the  peculiarly  graceful  stride  of  the  moun- 
taineer. "That's  Gabriel — not  the  archangel; 
but  an  angel,  anyway,"  Mr.  Hill,  the  secretary, 
told  me.  "  Go  from  garret  to  cellar  and  you  will 
find  no  dust  or  disorder.  The  small  boy,  that 
bane  of  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association, 
fears  him  and  loves  him  in  turn.  I  don't  see  how 
we  could  get  along  without  Gabriel." 

"  Kiss  my  cheek,  Gabriel,  and  wish  me  well." 


254  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

And  Gabriel  kissed  my  cheek  and  wished  me 
well,  just  as  he  used  to  in  his  Montenegrin  home, 
when  kinsman  met  kinsman  upon  the  war-path 
as  they  fought  their  ancient  enemy,  the  Turk. 
Now,  no  weapons  bulged  from  Gabriel's  belt,  his 
clothing  was  faultlessly  American,  his  once  fu- 
rious mustachios  had  fallen  beneath  an  American 
barber's  shears,  and  his  battle-field  was  this 
splendidly  equipped  building.  Officially,  he  was 
the  janitor ;  but  he  was  also  the  self-appointed 
and  beneficent  dictator,  feared  by  all  evil-doers 
and  breakers  of  rules,  and  beloved  by  all  who 
could  appreciate  a  faultlessly  kept  building. 

"  You  must  see  his  room,'*  the  genial  secretary 
said,  with  a  twinkle  in  his  eyes,  and  we  followed 
Gabriel  to  the  topmost  story.  He  opened  the 
door  of  his  room  with  pardonable  pride,  for  Prince 
Nicolas,  the  ruler  of  his  country,  whose  bedroom 
I  have  seen  and  in  whose  throne-room  I  have  had 
audience,  cannot  boast  of  an  apartment  so  neat 
and  clean  or  so  gorgeously  decorated.  Besides 
the  comfortable  furniture,  unrivalled  in  Gabriel's 
home-land,  the  walls  were  hung  with  pictures 
which  reflected  prevailing  American  tastes.  Cel- 
luloid toilet  articles  lay  upon  the  bureau,  while 
many  books  and  newspapers  betrayed  how  this 
janitor  spent  his  spare  time. 

Gabriel's  face  was  radiant  from  pride,  and  so 
was  mine  ;  while  added  to  my  pride  was  a  pleas- 
urable feeling  to  which  I  could  give  no  other  ex- 


From  The  LOVCZIN  to  GUINEA  HILL    255 

pression  than  to  ask  for  another  fraternal  kiss, 
which  he  gave  me  with  a  resounding  smack. 
When  we  returned  to  the  lobby,  I  looked  over 
the  group  of  men  gathered  there  to  meet  me,  and 
my  wits  were  tested  to  place  each  man  according 
to  his  nationality.  I  looked  into  the  face  of  one 
young  man,  a  veritable  giant,  and  before  he 
opened  his  lips  I  said,  "  You  are  a  Dalmatian." 
"  Yes,  yes,"  he  replied,  "  from  Ragusa." 

Again  I  looked  into  his  deep  eyes  and  finely 
chiselled  features.  Yes,  it  was  the  type  one  sees 
beneath  the  half-ruined  porticoes  of  ancient  pal- 
aces, where  young  men  play  the  tambouritza  and 
young  maidens  listen  behind  latticed  windows ; 
where  old  men  dream  dreams  of  the  Ragusan 
Republic  and  its  vanished  glory,  when  it  vied 
with  Venice  in  maritime  power,  although  it  never 
gained  her  ascendency.  Now  it  is  dying  a  slow 
and  a  forgotten  death,  beneath  shading  palm 
trees,  while  its  warrior  sons,  the  bluest  blood  of 
Dalmatia,  are  sent  to  dig  coal  in  Pennsylvania,  and 
its  guslar  minstrels  make  music  for  the  merry- 
makers at  Coney  Island. 

What  a  fine  specimen  this  is  which  Ragusa 
has  sent  us !  Ask  the  secretary  about  him  and 
he  will  tell  you  that  he  is  intelligent,  cleanly,  tem- 
perate, and  frugal ;  yet  in  Pennsylvania  he  is  just 
a "  Hunky."  Other  members  of  the  Young 
Men's  Christian  Association  are  loth  to  see  him 
on  the  gymnasium  floor  with  them,  and  to  most 


256  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

Americans  he  is  only  an  undesirable  immigrant 
from  Southern  Europe — something  to  be  dreaded. 

"  I  am  an  Italian,"  very  proudly  says  the  next 
man  who  grasps  my  hand,  and,  looking  into  his 
face,  I  ask  doubtfully,  "  From  Italy  ?  "  for  his  face 
shows  Slavic  lines.  "  From  Triest,"  he  adds. 

Ah  1  now  I  understand.  That  is  where  Italian, 
Slav,  and  German  meet — and  fight,  as  is  the  cus- 
tom of  all  good  Austrians  ;  for  each  race  claims 
superiority  over  the  others,  and  in  most  of  them 
flows  the  blood  of  all  three  races. 

"  You  must  come  to  see  my  kindergarten  and 
my  church."  I  promise ;  for  he  is  quite  an  im- 
portant factor  in  the  redemption  of  Little  Italy. 
The  next  man  is  a  Slovene  from  the  neighbour- 
hood of  Agram,  the  next  a  Slovak,  then  a  Pole, 
and  "  last  but  not  least,"  a  Bohemian.  All  these 
are  gathered  here  beneath  the  sheltering  wing  of 
this  archangel  Gabriel,  janitor  of  the  Young 
Men's  Christian  Association  and  self-appointed; 
beneficent  dictator  and  preserver  of  the  peace 
He  preserves  the  peace  by  carrying  out,  bodily, 
offending  or  offensive  visitors — a  task  for  which 
he  is  well  fitted.  One  of  his  ancestors  plunged 
into  the  thick  of  Turkish  foes,  dragged  a  mag- 
nificent Pasha  from  his  horse  and  carried  him 
across  the  intervening  space  in  the  face  of  a  rain 
of  bullets,  one  of  which  struck  him.  He  fell  with 
his  burden ;  but,  quickly  recovering  his  footing, 
held  the  Pasha  safe  by  the  throat  with  one 


From  The  LOVCZIN  to  GUINEA  HILL     257 

hand,  pulled  a  pistol  with  the  other,  and  in  a 
moment  argued  the  distinguished  prisoner  into 
taking  him  upon  his  shoulders.  Carried  thus  by 
the  Turkish  officer,  he  came  riding  into  camp  and 
presented  his  trophy  to  his  commander,  saying, 
"This  is  a  fine  horse  I  have  brought  to  you, 
my  captain ; "  and  then  fell  swooning  to  the 
ground. 

The  building  over  which  his  descendant, 
Gabriel,  watches,  is  as  safe  as  a  fortress.  There 
are  only  two  things  which  this  brave  fears.  One 
is  the  steam  boiler  which  provides  the  building 
with  heat.  Steam  is  an  unknown  force  in  his 
native  land,  which  even  the  fiery  horse  has  not 
yet  invaded ;  so,  no  matter  how  often  Gabriel  is 
instructed,  no  matter  how  often  he  is  reassured, 
when  the  steam  bubbles  and  hisses  he  flees  for 
safety;  and  to  this  day,  valves,  screws,  wheels, 
and  radiators  are  terrifying  mysteries  to  him. 

Gabriel's  other  dread  is — women.  Not  that  he 
dislikes  them ;  on  the  contrary,  you  should  see 
his  face  all  aglow  from  pleasure  when  a  woman 
looks  at  him,  and  yet  "  trembling  takes  hold  upon 
him  as  upon  the  inhabitants  of  Philistia,"  and  he 
returns  to  his  task  as  if  beaten  by  an  enemy,  all 
discouraged  and  distraught. 

Rightly  used  and  wisely  directed,  men  like 
Gabriel  can  become  a  power  among  us.  Over 
the  various  nationalities  of  Southern  Europe  now 
coming  here  in  great  numbers,  such  men  can 


258  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

wield  an  influence  more  potent,  perhaps,  for  the 
peace  of  the  world  than  the  Hague  Tribunal. 

Nine  men  of  nine  nationalities  grasped  hands 
in  that  Young  Men's  Christian  Association  lobby 
at  Hazleton,  Pennsylvania,  and  formed  a  circular 
chain  like  unto  the  chain  formed  by  the  ancient 
Slavic  heroes  when  they  swore  fealty  to  old 
"  Duchan."  Thus  did  we  pledge  our  faith  to 
this  new  country  as  we  exhorted  one  another  to 
patience,  to  justice,  and  to  love. 

In  leaving  Hazleton  I  was  asked  by  one  of  its 
citizens,  "What  will  these  foreigners  do  to 
America  when  they  get  the  power?" 

My  answer  was,  "  They  will  help  you  save  it, 
or  they  will  aid  you  in  destroying  it.  It  is  very 
much  in  your  own  power  whether  they  shall  be 
1  leaven '  or  '  dynamite.'  " 

P.  S.  Gabriel  has  left  Hazleton.  He  is  now 
in  New  York,  a  valuable  member  of  the  Immi- 
grant Department  of  the  Presbyterian  church, 
and  they  say  that  this  Montenegrin  is  "leaven" 
and  not  "  dynamite." 


XVIII 

THE  JEW  AND  THE  CHRISTIAN 

OF  all  animals,  man  is  the  most  brutal. 
Naturalists  still  disagree  as  to  the  reason 
for  his  cruelty,  but  whatever  it  be,  he 
has  not  often  stopped  to  ask  himself  the  cause. 
He  hates  and  smites  and  slays,  simply  because  he 
hates. 

It  is  true  that  man's  historic  brutalities  are 
hidden  under  the  gloss  of  what  he  calls  patriot- 
ism or  preservation  of  the  race  ;  but  if  the  average 
man  were  asked  the  cause  for  his  own  unbridled 
hate  of  other  races,  he  could  give  no  intelligent 
answer. 

That  race  hatred  is  a  primitive  passion  is  no 
doubt  true,  that  it  is  seemingly  ineffaceable  is 
also  true ;  for  neither  education  nor  religion  has 
obliterated  it ;  indeed  both,  strange  to  say,  seem 
to  have  intensified  it.  Even  the  religion  of  Jesus 
Christ,  whose  main  endeavour  was  to  break  down 
the  tribal  prejudices  and  hate  of  race.s,  has  not 
only  failed  to  accomplish  its  object,  but  in  its 
historic  manifestation  has  in  many  cases  aggra- 
vated it. 

Whatever  the  cause,  be  it  the  old  tribal  spirit, 
the  ethnic  motive  or  the  opposing  religious 


260  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

dogmas ;  whatever  has  been  endured  by  one  or 
other  of  the  races  and  for  whatever  cause,  the 
Jewish  race  has  suffered  for  all  causes,  has  suf- 
fered everywhere,  has  suffered  long,  and  has  not 
yet  seen  the  end  of  its  sufferings  anywhere. 

There  is  no  country  in  which  the  Jews  have 
been  in  any  large  numbers,  where  they  have  not 
endured  and  are  not  now  enduring  persecution. 
There  is  no  country  to-day  of  which  we  can  say 
that  the  causes  which  led  to  their  persecutions 
have  been  removed. 

This  is  as  true  of  Germany  as  it  is  of  Russia, 
and  as  true  of  the  United  States  as  it  is  of  Austro- 
Hungary. 

Every  fair  minded  Jew  knows  this,  and  because 
he  knows  it  he  would  rather  not  talk  about  it  or 
hear  it  talked  about. 

Every  fair  minded  Gentile  knows  it,  although 
perhaps  he  would  not  be  willing  to  acknowledge 
it,  even  to  himself. 

Undoubtedly,  there  must  be  reasons  for  an  at- 
titude so  universal,  and  before  we  can  apply  any 
remedy,  it  is  necessary  to  analyze  the  disease. 

First :  The  Jews  have  been  able  to  maintain 
the  tribal  spirit  during  periods  when  it  was  break- 
ing down  all  around  them.  The  tenacity  neces- 
sary for  this  and  the  extremely  exclusive  methods 
used,  blocked  every  avenue  of  social  approach 
and  aroused  the  suspicion  of  their  neighbours. 
Whether  these  neighbours  were  Egyptians,  As- 


THE  JEW  AND  THE  CHRISTIAN    261 

Syrians,  Romans,  Greeks,  Slavs  or  Teutons,  they 
hated  the  Jews  because  they  kept  themselves 
separate. 

The  feeling  of  superiority  which  the  Jew  felt, 
soon  degenerated  into  contempt  for  the  Gentile 
and  was  fostered  by  the  fact  that  the  mass  of  the 
people  with  whom  he  came  in  contact  was  beneath 
him  culturally,  using  the  word  in  its  broadest  sense. 

The  Jew  could  read  and  write  when  his  Gentile 
neighbours  did  not  know  the  alphabet. 

The  Gentile  bowed  down  to  stocks  and  stones, 
to  priests  and  Pope,  while  the  Jew  held  his  head 
erect  and  covered,  even  in  the  presence  of  Jehovah. 

The  people  who  thus  voluntarily  excluded 
themselves  from  Gentile  society  were  finally  kept 
aloof  by  law,  and  when  their  masters  became  their 
equals,  and  in  some  respects  their  superiors,  the 
way  of  approach  was  effectually  blocked  ;  until 
now,  the  aversion  of  the  Gentile  for  the  Jew  is 
fixed,  and  seems  almost  ineradicable,  much  as  the 
Jew  may  wish  to  free  himself  from  it. 

Second :  Religious  prejudice  is  another  vital 
factor  leading  to  this  antipathy  between  Jew 
and  Gentile ;  although  it  is  not  the  only  one.  It 
manifested  itself  early  in  some  of  the  New 
Testament  writings,  grew  more  intense  as  the 
church  began  to  overshadow  the  synagogue, 
reached  its  height  during  the  crusades  and  is  still 
a  compelling  force  among  the  common  people  all 
over  the  world. 


262  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

The  myth  that  Jews  used  the  blood  of  Gentile 
children  for  their  Passover  feast  very  early 
gained  currency,  and  this,  coupled  with  the  fact 
that  it  is  the  anniversary  period  of  Christ's  cruci- 
fixion and  resurrection,  has  always  made  Easter 
time  a  season  of  brutal  outrages  against  the  Jews. 

In  reality,  the  Church  has  never  been  quite 
blameless  in  these  fanatical  outbreaks  ;  although 
it  is  also  true  that  Church  dignitaries  at  all  times 
have  tried  to  shield  the  Jewish  victims.  In  most 
cases,  however,  they  have  made  no  effort  to  put 
out  the  fire  until  after  it  was  well  started,  and 
consequently  were  too  late. 

Yet  I  firmly  believe  that  religious  prejudice 
alone  does  not  account  for  this  feeling,  because 
it  exists  in  irreligious  and  religious  people  alike  ; 
among  those  who  are  quite  indifferent  to  the  fact 
that  Jesus  lived  and  who  have  but  a  vague  and 
distant  interest  in  His  crucifixion. 

The  late  Prof.  Nathaniel  S.  Shaler  of  Harvard, 
one  of  the  most  broad-minded  observers,  after  an 
exhaustive  study  of  the  subject,  comes  to  these 
conclusions.1 

"  The  greater  number  of  those  who  have  helped 
me  in  this  inquiry  note  that  there  is,  on  contact 
with  those  who  are  characteristic  Jews,  a  distinct 
and  peculiar  state  of  mind  aroused  by  the  inter- 
course. They  are  conscious  that  the  feeling  is 
other  than  that  which  they  experience  when  they 

1 "  The  Neighbours,"  pp.  1 10-1 14. 


THE  JEW  AND  THE  CHRISTIAN     263 

meet  those  of  their  own  race ;  but  there  is,  as 
might  be  expected,  no  clear  agreement  as  to  the 
precise  nature  of  the  impression. 

"  So  far  as  I  have  been  able  to  gather,  the  state 
is  emotional  and  instinctive,  being  in  effect  the 
same  as  that  which  is  always  excited  by  contact 
of  racially  different  men.  To  support  and  ex- 
plain this  primitive  emotion,  there  is  a  natural  ef- 
fort to  find  some  peculiarities  of  aspect  or 
demeanour  in  the  neighbour.  As  to  what  these 
idiosyncrasies  are,  there  is  a  considerable  differ- 
ence of  opinion.  The  greater  number  of  the  ob- 
servers agree  that  there  is  a  failure  on  the  part  of 
the  Jews  to  respond  in  like  temper  to  the  greet- 
ing which  they  send  them ';  they  agree  further 
that  there  is  generally  a  sense  of  avidity,  a  sense 
of  the  presence  of  the  seeking,  in  the  Jew,  for  im- 
mediate profit,  a  desire  to  win  at  once  some  ad- 
vantage from  the  situation,  such  as  is  not  im- 
mediately disclosed,  however  clear  it  might  be  to 
an  interlocutor  of  his  own  race.  Several  have 
stated  that  the  offense  came  from  a  feeling  that 
the  Jew  neighbour  was  smarter  than  themselves, 
having  keener  wits  and  a  mind  more  intent  on 
gainful  ends.  Others  state  that  the  Israelite 
spirit  makes  a  much  swifter  response  to  the 
greeting  the  stranger  gives  them  than  the  Aryan, 
and  that  the  acquaintance  is  forced  to  such  a 
degree  as  to  breed  dislike. 

"This     last    noted     feature    in    the    contact 


264  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

phenomena  of  Israelites  and  Aryans  appears 
to  me  a  matter  of  much  importance,  especially 
as  it  accords  with  my  own  experiences  and  with 
observations  formed  long  before  I  began  to  de- 
vise and  criticise  theories  on  this  subject.  As 
one  of  the  Deans  of  Harvard  University,  I  have 
been  for  ten  years  in  a  position  where  I  have  to 
meet  from  year  to  year  a  number  of  young 
Hebrews.  It  has  been  evident  to  me  from  the 
first  that  these  youths  normally  respond  more 
quickly  to  my  greeting  than  those  of  my  own 
race,  and  that  they  divine  and  act  on  my  state 
of  mind  with  far  greater  celerity.  They  are  in 
fact  so  quick  that  they  are  often  where  I  am, 
in  my  slower  way,  about  to  be,  before  I  am 
really  there.  This  would  make  them  at  times 
seem  irritating,  indeed,  presumptious,  were  it 
not  interesting  to  me  from  a  racial  point  of  view. 
To  those  who  are  in  nowise  concerned  with  such 
questions,  this  alacrity  is  naturally  exasperating, 
especially  when  the  movement  is  not  only  one 
of  wits  but  one  of  sympathies. 

"  We  all  know  how  disagreeable  it  is  to  have 
the  neighbour  call  on  us  for  some  kind  of  affec- 
tionate response,  before  we  are  ready  to  be 
moved,  and  how  certain  is  such  a  summons  to 
dry  the  springs  which  else  might  have  yielded 
abundantly.  In  our  slow,  Aryan  way,  we  de- 
mand an  introductory  process  on  the  part  of 
the  fellow  man  who  would  successfully  appeal 


265 

to  our  emotions.  Our  orators  know  this,  and 
provide  ample  exordiums  for  their  moving 
passages  ;  none  ventures  in  the  manner  of  the 
Hebrew  prophet  to  assume  that  his  hearers  will 
awaken  at  a  cry. 

"  In  observations  made  for  me  by  young  men, 
students  in  Harvard  College,  and  thus  under 
my  own  eyes,  so  to  speak,  I  have  confirmation 
of  the  hypothesis  that  an  important  part  of  the 
difficulty  of  social  contact  between  these  diverse 
people  is  due  to  the  difference  in  the  way  their 
minds  work  when  they  come  together.  It  is  an 
unhappy  fact  that  the  last  wave  of  anti-Semiti- 
cism,  that  which  led  to  the  semblance  of  perse- 
cution in  Germany  and  to  the  abomination  of 
the  Dreyfus  incident  in  France,  swept  across 
the  Atlantic  and  affected  to  a  considerable  ex- 
tent the  social  position  of  the  Jews  in  the  United 
States.  They  became  unwelcome  in  clubs,  and 
in  hotels;  their  daughters  were  not  admitted 
to  certain  private  schools  ;  and  in  various  ways 
the  unhappy  people  were  made  to  feel  the  ancient 
burden  as  in  this  country  it  had  not  come  upon 
them  before. 

"  Of  this  resurgence  of  dislike,  the  Hebrew 
students  had  some,  though  not  a  serious  share. 
Thirty  years  ago,  when  the  Jews  began  to  be 
an  appreciable  element  among  the  students  of 
this  university,  there  was  no  evidence  whatever 
of  dislike  to  them.  They  took  their  places 


266  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

among  their  mates  with  no  reference*  to  their 
race ;  that  indeed  seemed,  so  far  as  I  could 
discern,  to  be  quite  unnoted.  Following  on  the 
last  European  epidemic  of  hatred  to  the  Israelites, 
there  has  developed  among  this  body  of  students 
an  evident  dislike  for  their  fellows  of  that  race. 
The  feeling  is  by  no  means  universal  or  intense  ; 
it  is  condemned  by  the  greater  part  of  the  leaders 
of  opinion  among  these  young  men  ;  yet  it  is 
sufficient  to  be  noticeable  and  to  awaken  keen 
regret  in  all  those  who  love  the  catholic  and 
human  motive  which  so  long  has  inspired  that 
school.  One  of  my  helpers  in  the  effort  to  find 
the  reason  for  this  state  of  mind  summed  up  his 
acute  observations  in  the  statement  that  when 
one  spoke  to  the  Jew  kindly,  '  the  fellow  climbed 
all  over  you.' " 

I  agree  with  nearly  all  Professor  Shaler  says  ; 
but  I  am  sure  that  there  are  two  facts  which  he 
does  not  sufficiently  emphasize.  First :  The 
anti-Semitic  feeling  was  carried  to  Harvard  on 
the  wave  which  came  from  France  during  the 
Dreyfus  trial.  This  is  important ;  for  it  proves 
my  point  that  race  antipathies  are  contagious, 
and  that  it  does  not  matter  whether  the  con- 
tagion springs  from  an  ethical  or  unethical  source. 

The  psychological  law  for  this  lies  in  the 
now  fairly  well  explored  field  of  the  "mob" 
and  is  a  common  phenomenon  from  which 
many  races  have  to  suffer. 


THE  JEW  AND  THE  CHRISTIAN     267 

The  second  point  made  by  Professor  Shaler 
is  that  which  refers  to  the  Jewish  mind.  That 
quick  response  which  the  Jews  give,  which  is 
so  obnoxious  to  the  Gentile,  was  certainly 
not  disagreeable  to  Jehovah ;  for  if  we  trust 
Holy  Writ,  He  often  held  converse  with  them 
and  made  the  quick  Jewish  mind  the  vehicle  of 
His  thought 

This  quality  of  the  Jewish  mind  made  an 
Amos  hear  the  roaring  of  the  Lord's  voice  in 
the  lonely  wilderness ;  it  made  an  Isaiah  hear 
the  call  of  Jehovah  amid  the  din  of  the  traffic 
of  Jerusalem,  and  brought  to  the  ears  of  a  Paul 
the  heavenly  voice,  on  the  road  to  Damascus. 

This  quality  of  the  Jewish  mind  also  betrays 
his  "  seeking  for  immediate  profit"  and  explains 
the  repulsion  felt  by  Professor  Shaler's  friends, 
and  felt  by  American  people  in  academic  circles 
and  out  of  them. 

In  my  judgment  the  difference  between  the 
Jew  and  other  commercial  people  lies  largely 
in  the  fact  that  the  Jew  cannot  so  well  conceal 
his  desire  to  make  profit.  It  is  written  upon 
his  mobile  face  and  conveys  itself  in  the  shrug 
of  his  shoulders  and  the  upturned  palms  of  his 
hands. 

For  that  reason  the  Jew  is  not  successful  in 
those  forms  of  business  which  demand  that  their 
commercial  features  be  hidden.  He  does  not 
make  a  good  life  insurance  agent,  for  here  one 


268  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

must  assume  the  r61e  of  a  benefactor ;  nor  does 
he  make  a  good  book  agent ;  for  in  that  work 
one  must  seem  disinterestedly  interested  in  the 
entire  family  or  sell  the  book  as  a  great  favour  to 
a  few  cultured  people  in  the  community. 

Although  the  Jew,  especially  in  America,  be- 
comes a  fairly  clever  gambler,  he  is  a  poor  match 
for  the  Gentile  in  the  game  of  poker,  and  for  a 
long  time  to  come  he  will  have  to  keep  out  of 
games  in  which  the  mask  one  assumes  determines 
their  success ;  even  as  he  will  have  to  continue  to 
do  business  in  scrap  iron  and  not  in  railroads,  in 
pawn-shops  and  not  in  politics. 

In  my  experience  with  Jewish  tradespeople  in 
America,  I  am  convinced  that  the  sense  of  im- 
mediate profit  is  no  less  present  in  the  Gentile 
mind  than  it  is  in  that  of  the  Jew,  and  that  the 
Gentile  does  not  always  completely  conceal  it. 

There  is  at  least  one  sphere  out  of  which  the 
Jew  keeps  his  business  more  carefully  than  does 
his  Gentile  competitor,  and  that  is  the  sphere  of 
religion. 

I  have  yet  to  see  Jewish  hymnals  invaded  by 
advertisements,  as  are  those  of  some  Gentile  con- 
gregations, and  although  the  Jew  is  a  direct 
descendant  of  those  traffickers  whom  Jesus  drove 
out  of  the  temple,  he  has  managed  to  keep  his 
synagogue  much  more  free  from  commercialism 
than  his  critics  have  their  churches. 

In  the  great  and  solemn  moments  of  life,  he  is 


THE  JEW  AND  THE  CHRISTIAN     269 

not  nearly  so  practical  as  the  funny  papers  would 
have  us  believe.  At  the  birth  of  a  child,  at  the 
marriage  feast  and  at  the  death-bed,  he  shows  his 
natural  idealism  and  gives,  forgives  and  forgets. 

All  this  is  not  quite  so  true  of  other  commer- 
cial peoples,  notably  the  Americans.  The  fol- 
lowing instance  may  not  be  typical  nor  may  it 
prove  the  rule,  and  would  no  doubt  be  attributed 
to  a  Jew,  had  it  not  occurred  in  the  college  town 
in  which  I  live  and  where  all  the  clothing  dealers 
are  Gentiles,  if  not  Christians. 

One  of  them  was  suddenly  taken  to  a  distant 
city  to  be  operated  on  for  appendicitis,  and  the 
next  day  a  local  paper  contained  the  following  ad- 
vertisement : 

"  I  have  gone  to  Rochester,  Minn.,  to  have  my 
appendix  cut  out.  This  will  be  a  great  cut,  but 
it  will  not  compare  with  the  cut  I  am  making  in 
clothing  at  my  store  on  the  corner  of  X  and  Y 
Streets." 

After  the  operation,  while  the  man  hovered 
between  the  unknown  places,  a  second  advertise- 
ment appeared. 

"  I  am  having  a  hot  time  holding  down  a  bed 
in  this  hospital ;  but  it  does  not  compare  with  the 
hot  time  my  competitors  will  have  in  meeting  my 
prices  in  clothing  at  my  store,  on  the  corner  of 
X  and  Y  Streets." 

My  readers  will  agree  with  me  that  this  "  beats 
the  Jews." 


270  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

The  question  of  business  standards  is  a  very 
different  matter,  and  that  I  wish  to  discuss  in 
another  chapter. 

I  have  not  set  myself  the  task  of  playing  the 
apologist  for  the  Jew  or  for  any  of  the  groups  of 
which  I  treat  I  freely  acknowledge  that  there 
are  disagreeable  qualities  in  the  Jew  which  ex- 
plain in  a  measure,  at  least,  the  prejudice  aroused 
by  him. 

Foremost,  I  suppose,  is  the  type  which,  when 
it  is  most  pronounced,  is  apt  to  be  unpleasant  and 
unsympathetic. 

The  offenses  against  good  taste  in  dress  are 
marked  in  many  of  them ;  but  that  lies  more  in 
the  air  with  which  the  clothes  are  worn  than  in 
the  clothes  themselves.  They  are  usually  such 
as  fashion  dictates,  and  not  in  all  cases  more  ex- 
treme than  those  worn  by  many  Gentiles.  The 
love  of  display  is  to  some  degree  common  to  both 
Jew  and  Gentile ;  but  is  more  noticeable  among 
Jewish  women,  because  they  cannot  conceal  their 
feelings  as  well  as  the  Gentile  woman  can. 

The  Jewish  woman  who  has  "arrived"  and 
knows  it,  wants  the  whole  world  to  know  it  also ; 
while  the  Gentile  woman,  especially  the  Gentile 
American  woman,  wears  her  first  imported  gown 
and  diamonds  as  if  her  swaddling  clothes  had 
been  made  in  Paris  and  her  original  baby  pins 
encrusted  with  jewels. 

Still  more  apparent  is  a  certain  arrogance,  a 


THE  JEW  AND  THE  CHRISTIAN    271 

most  annoying  characteristic,  especially  in  a  peo- 
ple which  ought  to  have  the  quality  of  humility 
in  a  large  degree.  The  Jew  recognizes  this  in 
his  fellow  Jew  if  not  in  himself,  and  no  one  more 
deplores  it 

He  calls  it  Jewish  chuzpa,  Jewish  "  cheek,"  and 
it  is,  perhaps,  one  of  the  greatest  causes  for  the 
social  barriers  raised  against  him.  It  is  found  in 
the  Jewish  beggar  and  in  the  Jewish  millionaire. 

It  is  an  ancient  fault;  for  long  ago,  "Jesh- 
urun  waxed  fat,  and  kicked."  It  is  a  quality 
which  leads  many  eminent  Jews  to  acts  of  unwis- 
dom, such  as  protests  against  Christmas  exer- 
cises in  the  public  schools ;  the  resolution  passed 
by  a  recent  conference  of  Jewish  Rabbis,  that 
America  is  not  a  Christian  country,  and  other 
acts  equally  unadvised. 

This,  also,  has  its  causes,  which  are  found 
among  many  peoples  suddenly  released  from 
disabilities  and  given  social  and  political  rights. 

In  order  to  introduce  my  main  theme,  the  re- 
lation of  the  Jew  to  the  Christian,  I  have  tried 
conscientiously  to  analyze  the  causes  which  ob- 
struct the  social  contact  between  Jew  and  Gentile. 

There  are  real  antagonisms  arising  from  the 
Jewish  mind  and  habits,  which  are  historic  in- 
heritances and  cannot  be  easily  overcome ;  but 
which  have  made  it  often  a  hard  task  for  the 
Christian  to  be  a  real  Christian  towards  his  Jew- 
ish neighbour. 


272  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

There  are  other  barriers,  however,  and  they 
exist  first,  in  the  historic  development  of  Judaism 
and  second,  in  the  nature  and  content  of  historic 
Christianity. 

The  Jew  is  heterogeneous  in  cultural  develop- 
ment. There  are  Orthodox  Jews,  wrapped  in 
cabalistic  mysticism,  who  have  never  moved  an 
inch  along  the  pathway  of  progress ;  to  whom 
not  only  each  word  written  in  the  law  of  Moses 
has  divine  origin  and  divine  meaning,  but  to 
whom  each  word  has  as  many  meanings  as  it  has 
letters  and  dots  and  dashes.  Upon  these  Jews, 
all  the  fetters  of  legalism  are  still  rivetted,  and  to 
them,  tradition  and  revelation  are  one  and  the 
same. 

There  are  less  Orthodox  Jews  who  have  pro- 
gressed as  far  as  the  philosopher  Mendelssohn 
led  them  a  century  ago. 

There  are  nationalistic  Jews  to  whom  Zion  is 
beckoning,  and  who  hear  the  voice  of  the  prophet 
bidding  them  "  possess  the  land  "  and  promising 
that  "  the  ransomed  of  the  Lord  shall  return  and 
come  to  Zion,  with  songs  and  everlasting  joy  upon 
their  heads  "  and  that  then,  "  sorrow  and  sighing 
shall  flee  away." 

There  are  modern  Jews,  who  have  forsaken  the 
law  and  the  ordinances,  the  Sabbath  and  the  full 
moons,  to  whom  the  reformed  synagogue  is 
merely  a  connecting  link  with  the  historic  past. 

There   are    rationalistic   Jews  to  whom  Karl 


THE  JEW  AND  THE  CHRISTIAN     273 

Marx  is  the  Messiah,  and  the  Socialistic  common- 
wealth, Jerusalem  ;  and  there  are  just  Jews,  who 
eat  Kosher  food  because  they  like  it,  to  whom 
Mammon  is  the  Messiah  and  their  business  the 
Holy  of  Holies. 

To  none  of  these  does  Christianity  in  its  his- 
toric development  appeal  very  strongly :  First, 
because  becoming  a  Christian  means  separation 
from  the  race  ;  for  heterogeneous  as  the  Jews  are 
in  cultural  development,  so  homogeneous  are 
they  in  their  racial  consciousness.  This  is  some- 
thing which  baffles  analysis ;  it  is  the  strongest 
example  of  race  cohesion  which  we  have.  Peo- 
ple who  have  lost  national  unity,  who  have  di- 
verged widely  in  religious  beliefs  and  ceremonial 
observances,  who  are  as  far  apart  in  culture  as 
Greek  and  Barbarian,  are  still  one  as  a  race,  and 
the  man  is  Anathema  who  breaks  the  racial  tie. 
It  matters  not  whether  he  does  it  to  escape  per- 
secution, to  gain  preferment,  or  from  deep  con- 
viction ;  to  his  fellow  Jews  it  is  always  apostasy. 

That  the  broad-minded  Jew  may  have  a  race 
consciousness  which  breaks  through  the  ties  of 
blood,  they  admit ;  but  he  must  not  become  a 
Christian,  even  if  to  him  Christianity  is  the  only 
escape  from  the  narrow  tribal  idea  and  from  his 
own  outgrown  race  consciousness,  into  the  broader 
realm  where  he  can  say  that  he  is  a  member  of 
the  human  race,  and  as  such  is  under  the  obliga- 
tions of  brotherhood  to  all  men. 


274  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

In  the  second  place,  Christianity  in  its  cere- 
monies, its  ecclesiastical  practices  and  its  theol- 
ogy, is  repellent  to  all  these  Jews,  from  the  ex- 
treme radical  to  the  extremest  Orthodox. 

Anything  which  has  even  a  semblance  of  idol- 
atry, the  slightest  suspicion  of  Polytheism,  must 
be  obnoxious  to  the  Jew  ;  for  he  has  been  smitten 
by  hail,  drought  and  pestilence,  and  has  been  led 
into  captivity  because  his  unregenerate  nature 
delighted  in  the  worship  of  Baalim,  and  because 
he  forsook  Jehovah  who  dwelt  between  the  Cher- 
ubim and  the  Seraphim. 

Then,  too,  the  methods  used  to  win  the  Jew  to 
Christianity  have  aroused  his  opposition.  In  the 
Old  World,  until  comparatively  recently,  he  was 
forced  once  a  year  to  attend  church  and  listen  to 
a  sermon  preached  with  fhe  avowed  object  of  his 
conversion.  Needless  to  say,  it  rarely,  if  ever, 
converted  him. 

The  modern  method  as  it  manifests  itself  in 
Jewish  Missions  is  no  less  repellent  to  him  ;  al- 
though he  is  not  forced  to  listen  to  the  mission- 
aries' sermons.  Naturally,  the  converted  Jew, 
who  is  an  official  converter,  is  usually  under  sus- 
picion, although  that  suspicion  is  not  always 
justified. 

With  this  question  of  race  consciousness  and 
habits,  the  Jew  alone  can  deal,  and  he,  unfortu- 
nately, is  not  always  in  the  frame  of  mind  required 
to  adjust  himself  to  the  feelings  of  the  Gentiles 


THE  JEW  AND  THE  CHRISTIAN     275 

He  will  therefore  have  to  bear  the  consequences 
which  lie  in  the  social  realm  and  may  soon  reach 
into  the  economic. 

The  task  of  historic  Christianity  in  its  relation 
to  the  Jew  is  not  an  easy  one.  It  cannot  unmake 
itself  or  readily  adjust  itself  to  his  likes  and  dis- 
likes in  theology  ;  nor  can  it  recede  from  its  en- 
deavour to  make  propaganda  for  the  faith  which 
it  believes  should  be  universal. 

I  have  the  conviction  that  when  Christ  comes 
fully  to  His  own  in  the  church,  He  will  also  come 
to  His  own  in  the  synagogue ;  certainly  no 
sooner,  and  perhaps  not  much  later. 

When  He  emerges  from  the  tangle  of  Greek 
philosophy,  Roman  legalism  and  Byzantine  tra- 
ditionalism— when  "  in  deed  and  in  truth  "  He 
becomes  the  Gentile's  Messiah,  He  will  also  be- 
come the  Messiah  of  the  Jew. 

As  a  working  basis  for  the  right  relation  be- 
tween Jew  and  Gentile,  I  wish  to  quote  Rabbi 
Sonnenschein,  formerly  of  Des  Moines,  Iowa,  in 
words  spoken  by  him  to  a  colleague  in  the  Chris- 
tian ministry. 

"  I  want  to  live  so,  that  when  you  see  me,  you 
will  say  :  '  There  goes  Rabbi  Sonnenschein,  who 
is  a  Jew  ;  yet  he  is  a  better  Christian  than  I  am.' 
And  I  want  you  to  live  so,  that  when  I  see  you, 
I  will  say  :  '  That  man  is  a  Christian  ;  but  he  is 
a  better  Jew  than  I  am.' " 


XIX 

THE  JEW  IN  THE  IMMIGRANT  PROBLEM 

THE  Jew  has  nearly  always  been  an  im- 
migrant and  a  problem.  Nowhere  is 
he  accepted  as  indigenous ;  neither  in 
Russia,  where  he  has  lived  for  centuries,  nor  in  New 
York,  where  he  will  soon  represent  the  bulk  of 
population.  He  is  as  much  a  stranger  on  his 
home  soil  in  Palestine  as  upon  the  rawest  bit  of 
ground  staked  into  a  city,  in  Wyoming  or  the 
Dakotas.  His  going  is  nowhere  regretted  at  the 
time  and  his  coming  is  not  welcomed  ;  while  his 
remaining  in  a  place  leads  to  the  development  of 
prejudice,  which  has  its  root  in  various  causes,  al- 
ready discussed.  In  a  peculiar  sense,  his  coming 
in  large  numbers  is  felt  by  the  toiler  and  the  trader ; 
by  the  most  antagonistic  Gentile  groups  and  by 
those  Jews  who  came  earlier,  from  some  more 
favoured  spot  in  the  culture  centres  of  Europe. 

The  religious  development  of  the  Anglo-Saxon 
people,  influenced  more  often  by  the  Old  Testa- 
ment than  by  the  New,  as  well  as  their  familiarity 
with  the  Bible,  has  kept  the  Jew  who  lives  among 
them  immune  from  the  grosser  consequences  of 
Anti-Semitism. 

Jehovah's  chosen  people  have  often  been  re- 
276 


o  ™ 

2  I 

s  § 

S  £ 

H  o> 


The  JEW  in  The  IMMIGRANT  PROBLEM    277 

garded  with  peculiar  interest  by  the  Anglo-Saxons, 
if  not  always  treated  with  marked  favour ;  yet 
even  among  them,  this  feeling  has  gradually  un- 
dergone a  change,  until  .their  coming  has  become 
a  cause  for  special  inquiry  by  the  English  Par- 
liament and  one  of  the  chief  difficulties  of  the 
whole  immigrant  problem,  as  it  affects  our  cities. 

I  have  had  peculiar  opportunities  to  note  the 
development  of  these  changes,  and  believe  that  the 
Jew  has  been  too  optimistic  regarding  his  future 
in  the  United  States;  while  the  Gentile  is  too 
pessimistic  as  to  the  gravity  of  the  Jewish  prob- 
lem. 

A  clergyman  in  the  city  of  New  York  whose 
fame  is  international,  who  is  in  constant  contact 
with  the  best  type  of  Jews,  startled  me  not  long 
ago  by  saying  that  the  Jewish  problem  in  the 
city  of  New  York  was  in  a  most  acute  stage.  In 
analysing  his  own  feelings,  he  said  :  "  No  matter 
what  you  do,  you're  up  against  it ;  no  matter 
how  you  prepare  yourself  to  act  the  brother  to- 
wards them,  they  won't  let  you  succeed.  You 
can't  love  them  and  you  don't  dare  hate  them/' 

Mr.  Robert  Watchorn,  the  ex-commissioner  of 
immigration,  told  me  that  after  an  address  in 
which  he  minimized  the  problem  of  immigration, 
a  well-known  citizen  of  New  York  came  to  him 
and  said  that  in  twenty  years  Kisheneff  will 
have  its  counterpart  on  the  East  Side. 

One  of  the  most  liberal  Jewish  rabbis  in  this 


278  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

country,  whose  addresses  teem  from  the  most  ex- 
treme optimism  as  to  the  future  of  his  race  in 
America,  will  be  amazed  to  hear  that  because  he 
was  invited  to  preach  the  baccalaureate  sermon 
in  a  Western  state  institution  of  learning,  a  large 
number  of  the  class  absented  itself  from  that  serv- 
ice. In  commenting  upon  it,  I  heard  one  of  the 
number  say  to  another,  in  unacademic,  campus 
language  :  "  Tough  luck,  boy.  They've  invited 
a  Sheeny  to  preach  our  baccalaureate.  It's  an  in- 
sult to  the  class  1 " 

The  fact  that  twenty  per  cent,  of  the  students 
at  Columbia  University  are  Jews,  has  led  a  num- 
ber of  Western  boys  to  say  to  me :  "  We  won't 
go  to  Columbia.  There  are  too  many  Jews  there." 

No  less  brutally  frank  expressions  I  have  heard 
in  the  shops  in  which  I  have  worked,  and  in 
hotel  lobbies  where  I  have  loitered ;  so  that  while 
I  may  not  regard  the  Jewish  problem  as  the  most 
serious  in  the  general  one  of  immigration,  I  cer- 
tainly regard  it  as  one  of  the  most  sensitive  to 
approach  and  one  of  the  most  difficult  to  solve. 

I  usually  ask  four  questions  regarding  every 
immigrant  group,  and  the  answer  determines,  in 
my  own  mind  at  least,  the  desirability  of  its  com- 
ing to  the  United  States.  The  four  questions  are : 

First,  Do  we  need  them?  By  that,  I  mean, 
will  they  perform  some  useful  function  which  is 
necessary  and  which  the  earlier  comers  cannot 
or  will  not  perform  ?  This  is  entirely  an  indus- 


The  JEW  in  The  IMMIGRANT  PROBLEM    279 

trial  question  and  can  be  safely  answered  only 
by  the  economist,  who  knows  the  field  in  all  its 
bearings. 

My  conviction,  based  upon  no  such  accurate 
knowledge,  is  that  we  most  need  those  groups 
which  live  by  their  muscle,  rather  than  by  their 
wits ;  the  toiler,  rather  than  the  trader.  If  my 
theory  is  correct,  this  would  exclude  many  Jews  ; 
although  I  am  sure  that  they  have  performed 
many  important  functions  in  the  industrial  sphere, 
both  in  the  realm  of  manual  labour  and  out  of  it. 
Some  such  discrimination  seems  to  me  fair,  for  it 
would  bar  classes,  rather  than  races,  and  would 
affect  equally  other  commercial  people,  such  as 
the  Greeks,  Armenians  and  Syrians. 

Whether  or  not  this  first  question  is  funda- 
mentally sound,  of  one  thing  I  am  sure.  Half 
the  ill  feeling  against  the  Jews  would  vanish  if 
they  would  give  themselves  in  any  large  numbers 
to  the  mechanical  trades  and  to  agriculture. 

Second,  Does  the  group  which  seeks  admis- 
sion have  the  same  economic  ideals  which 
characterized  the  earlier  groups  ? 

This  refers  to  standards  of  living  as  well  as  to 
standards  of  making  the  living. 

The  Jew  answers  well  to  the  first  part  of  the 
question  ;  in  fact,  better  than  the  Latin  or  the 
Slav.  Although  he  may  be  compelled  to  eat 
plain  and  coarse  food,  he  craves  the  richer  and 
daintier  fare ;  if  he  has  to  live  in  a  tenement  on 


280  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

the  East  Side,  he  does  it  with  an  eye  to  a  flat  in 
Harlem  ;  for  the  Jew  has  never  ceased  looking 
for  the  "  land  flowing  with  milk  and  honey,"  or 
longing  for  the  "  flesh-pots  of  Egypt"  His 
standard  of  living  is  not  low,  but  as  some  one 
has  said :  "  elastic."  He  may  eat  red  herring 
to-day,  but  to-morrow  he  will  eat  carp  with 
garlic  sauce ;  that  is,  if  he  can  afford  it. 

He  will  control  his  historic  appetite  in  order 
to  "  get  on,"  and  it  is  the  subordination  of  health 
and  decency  to  this  desire  which  often  makes 
him  an  economic  problem,  if  not  a  menace. 

But  when  he  has  attained,  he  is  no  miser. 
His  children  must  have  the  best  education,  and 
his  wife  the  most  expensive  clothing;  he  will 
save  his  children  from  the  sweat  shop  if  he  can, 
and  his  wife  whether  he  can  or  not.  He  is  not 
willing  to  live  off  his  children  or  on  the  town ; 
although  he  is  not  always  above  living  on  his 
more  fortunate  brethren,  whom  he  thus  gives 
a  chance  to  earn  the  divine  favour  by  bestowing 
alms  ;  he  rarely  sinks  into  pauperism. 

The  agencies  which  minister  to  pleasure,  the 
theatre,  the  concert  hall  and  vaudeville,  would 
lose  a  fair  share  of  their  patronage  if  Jews  were 
excluded  from  them. 

The  Jew  is"  neither  a  total  abstainer,  nor  is  he 
intemperate,  and  his  expenditure  for  alcohol, 
compared  with  that  of  the  Irish,  is  about  as  one 
to  a  hundred.  None  dreads  the  coming  of  Jews 


Ttie  JEW  in  The  IMMIGRANT  PROBLEM    281 

into  a  neighbourhood  more  than  the  saloon- 
keeper, and  some  of  the  vilest  localities  in  New 
York  have  been  made  fairly  decent  by  the  ex- 
pansion of  the  Ghetto. 

One  of  the  most  difficult  questions  to  answer 
is,  whether  Jewish  ideals  of  making  a  living  ac- 
cord with  those  which  characterize  the  older 
groups.  The  popular  judgment  is  that  they  do  not. 
It  is  commonly  charged  that  the  Jew  degrades 
the  industries  upon  which  he  enters ;  that  as  a 
competitor  he  is  unscrupulous  and  as  an  adver- 
tiser, dishonest.  "Jewing  down  "  is  a  phrase  too 
well  known  in  commercial  life  to  need  interpre- 
tation. 

Whether  it  is  the  "  quality  of  the  Jewish 
mind  "  which  has  created  this  judgment,  as  Pro- 
fessor Shaler  indicates,  or  whether  it  is  the 
quality  of  his  moral  nature,  I  am  not  in  a  posi- 
tion to  determine.  All  I  can  say  with  a  sense  of 
assurance  is,  first,  that  the  business  morality  of 
the  Jew  not  only  compares  favourably  with 
other  commercial  groups  which  are  coming  to 
the  United  States,  but  is  generally  admitted  to  be 
higher  than  that  of  the  Greeks  and  Armenians. 

Second,  That  the  so-called  Jewish  business 
ethics,  which  in  reality  are  Oriental  and  not 
essentially  Jewish,  and  are  also  prevalent  on  the 
continent  of  Europe,  do  not  compare  favourably 
with  the  straightforward  business  methods  tradi- 
tional in  America. 


282  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

Third,  That  the  Jew  has  adopted  these  Ameri- 
can standards  in  the  lines  of  business  which  he 
controls,  and  that  in  every  city  he  is  counted 
among  its  most  substantial  and  reliable  business 
men. 

Fourth,  That  although  the  methods  used  by 
large  numbers  of  Jews  in  business  are  often 
questionable,  as  is  often  the  business  itself,  they 
have  a  remarkably  clear  record  in  the  sphere  of 
high  finance,  and  that  it  is  most  fortunate  for 
the  well-being  of  the  Jews  in  America  that  the 
so-called  "  Captains  of  Industry  "  are  a  native 
product 

Roughly  speaking,  then,  the  charges  that  the 
Jew  is  an  unfair  competitor  in  the  industries  and 
in  business  may  be  true ;  yet  if  the  case  were 
put  to  a  jury  which  could  to  some  degree  free 
itself  from  prejudice,  the  result  would  probably 
be  a  disagreement  What  could  not  be  easily 
denied  is,  that  the  sense  of  truth  in  the  Jew  from 
the  east  of  Europe,  notably  from  Poland,  is  low. 

I  quote  Mr.  H.  S.  Lewis  of  London,  a  Jew, 
and  an  unprejudiced  authority.1  "  One  is 
sometimes  tempted  to  conclude  in  despair 
that  the  bulk  of  the  Polish  immigrants  have 
no  sense  of  truth  whatever.  No  more  pain- 
ful spectacle  can  be  witnessed  than  the  hear- 
ing of  a  summons  at  an  East-End  police 
court,  where  the  parties  concerned  are  foreign 

»"  The  Jew  in  London,"  Kussel- Lewis,  pages  171-173. 


The  JEW  in  The  IMMIGRANT  PROBLEM    283 

Jews.  Obvious  perjury  on  the  slightest  provo- 
cation is  committed  in  case  after  case.  The 
comments  of  Judge  Bacon  at  the  Whitechapel 
County  Court  on  this  fact  have  been  at  times 
severely  criticised  by  the  Jewish  press.  His 
generalizations  may  have  been  too  sweeping, 
being  based  on  his  experience  of  petty  litigation, 
where  the  seamy  side  of  life  is  necessarily  prom- 
inent At  the  same  time,  his  remarks  have  been 
based  on  a  substantial  substratum  of  truth.  It  is 
the  experience  of  most  visitors  among  the  foreign 
poor  for  charitable  societies,  that  although  abso- 
lute imposture  is  exceptional,  falsehoods  with  re- 
gard to  the  details  of  cases  are  constantly  met 
with. 

"  It  is  to  this  taint  of  untruthfulness  that  most 
of  the  other  defects  of  the  foreign  Jews  are  to  be 
traced.  I  fear  that  it  cannot  be  denied  that 
their  standard  of  business  morality  is  often  de- 
fective. A  statement  of  this  kind  may  be  re- 
garded as  unfair,  and  it  is,  of  course,  difficult  to 
put  it  to  any  exact  test.  An  illustration  is,  how- 
ever, afforded  by  a  return  of  convictions,  period- 
ically issued  in  the  minutes  of  the  London 
County  Council,  for  the  use  of  false  weights  and 
measures  and  kindred  offenses.  Judging  by 
the  names  of  the  offenders,  an  altogether  undue 
proportion  of  them  appear  to  be  foreign  Jews. 

"  We  meet  also  in  East  London  with  far  too 
many  cases  where  the  Bankruptcy  laws  are 


284  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

evaded  by  persons  who  pass  through  the  courts 
and  reappear  in  business  with  suspicious  celerity 
and  without  apparent  loss." 

The  testimony  of  Rev.  Max  Wertheim  of  Ada, 
Ohio,  ought  to  have  some  weight — it  concerns  the 
Americanized  Jew.  He  was  a  rabbi  at  Dayton, 
Ohio,  and  after  passing  through  various  religious 
crises,  became  a  Baptist,  and  is  now  doing  de- 
voted work  on  a  small  salary.  Naturally,  he  has 
not  received  the  most  generous  treatment  from 
his  former  co-religionists,  and  would  hardly  flat- 
ter them.  In  answer  to  my  question  whether  he 
found  any  difference  in  business  standards  be- 
tween his  Jewish  and  his  Christian  flocks,  he  un- 
hesitatingly said  that  there  was  no  difference. 

More  weighty  is  the  testimony  which  Prof. 
Graham  Taylor  gave  recently  before  a  Christian 
Brotherhood.  "I  know  as  good  Christians 
among  the  Jews  as  among  the  churches." 

I  am  quite  sure  that  basically  there  is  no  dif- 
ference ;  although  I  should  characterize  some 
Jewish  methods  as  mean,  and  those  of  some  Gen- 
tiles as  dangerous.  In  making  this  distinction, 
however,  I  realize  that  "  wooden  nutmegs,"  high- 
bottomed  fruit  boxes,  sun-kissed  apples  at  the 
top  of  the  barrel  and  gnarled  ones  at  the  bottom, 
as  well  as  other  tricks  of  the  native  trade,  are 
mean  enough  ;  while  the  methods  of  the  theatrical 
trust,  the  adulteration  of  foods  and  drugs,  the 
white  slave  trade  and  other  questionable  forms 


The  JEW  in  The  IMMIGRANT  PROBLEM    285 

of  business  engaged  in  by  both  Jew  and  Gentile, 
may  be  called  both  mean  and  dangerous. 

It  is  also  interesting  to  note  that  in  the  great 
industrial  struggle  the  Jew  is  represented  largely 
on  the  capitalistic  side ;  but  on  the  other  hand, 
some  of  the  strongest  leaders  in  the  labour  unions 
and  many  of  the  Socialists  of  the  rank  and  file 
are  Jews;  consequently  the  vox  populi  may  con- 
demn them  for  being  both. 

The  third  question  is  :  Does  the  group  possess 
ethnic  qualities  that  will  prevent  normal  assimi- 
lation, and  therefore  will  increase  race  friction 
already  dangerously  strong  ? 

Disagreeable  as  is  the  Jewish  type  when  very 
pronounced,  it  is  undergoing  such  rapid  changes 
where  the  environment  is  favourable,  that  it  does 
not  present  a  serious  barrier  to  assimilation. 
The  issues  of  intermarriage  are  exceptionally 
good  and  the  resultant  types  normal.  Yet  in 
spite  of  the  vanishing  type,  the  Jews  are  a  pecul- 
iar people  and  will  long  remain  so.  Their  his- 
toric inheritance  and  their  religious  traditions, 
no  less  than  their  attitude  towards  the  Gentiles 
and  the  attitude  of  the  Gentiles  towards  them, 
will  naturally  keep  them  a  group  apart.  The 
hostile  attitude  on  both  sides  ought  not  to  be 
strengthened,  and  I  believe  that  for  a  period  at 
least,  Jewish  emigration  from  the  east  of  Eu- 
rope should  cease.  Not  because  I  believe  the 
Russian  Jew  inferior,  but  merely  because  he  is 


286  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

numerous  and  the  ethnic  and  cultural  difference 
between  him  and  the  native  is  so  marked  as  to 
aggravate  an  antipathy  already  intense ;  this  the 
Jews  themselves  feel. 

A  Jewish  merchant,  who  lives  in  a  certain  town 
in  the  Middle  West,  told  me  that  strong  Anti- 
Semitic  feelings  were  aroused  in  the  community 
by  the  arrival  there  of  Russian  Jews,  and  that  as 
soon  as  they  moved  away  the  feeling  vanished. 

Another  Jewish  merchant  told  me  that  in  visit- 
ing various  places  with  a  view  to  locating  his 
business,  his  first  inquiry  was :  "  Are  there  any 
Russian  Jews  in  the  town  ?  "  He  said  that  busi- 
ness for  the  Jew  is  better  where  there  are  no 
Russian  Jews. 

The  feeling  of  the  Americanized  Jew  towards 
this  new  immigrant  was  thus  expressed  by  one 
of  them :  "  We  have  to  stand  by  them,  but  we 
wish  they  hadn't  come." 

My  fourth  question  refers  to  the  attitude  of  the 
groups  towards  our  social  and  political  ideals. 

If  the  family  ideal  is  the  basis  of  our  social  and 
political  life,  it  is  certainly  safe  in  the  keeping  of 
the  Jew,  who,  if  he  errs  at  all  in  that  direction, 
errs  in  making  the  well-being  of  the  community 
or  state,  secondary  to  the  well-being  of  his  family. 

In  spite  of  the  fact  that  divorce,  according  to 
the  rabbinic  law,  is  easily  obtained,  almost  as 
easily  as  in  some  of  our  Western  states,  it  is  rarely 
resorted  to.  Sexual  immorality,  wife  desertion 


The  J  EW  in  The  IMMIGRANT  PROBLEM    287 

and  divorce,  become  more  common  among  the 
Jews  only  under  stress  of  changed  economic  and 
religious  environment. 

The  criminal  record  of  the  Jew  is  still  good  ; 
although  he  is  under  suspicion  of  merely  being 
too  shrewd  to  be  caught. 

In  the  so-called  lesser  and  meaner  crimes,  such 
as  receiving  stolen  goods  and  pocket-picking, 
he  has  almost  a  monopoly  ;  while  in  burglary 
and  murder  his  record  is  fairly  clean. 

At  present  there  are  no  reliable  statistics  on 
this  point,  and  there  is  much  chance  of  juggling 
with  figures,  for  friend  and  foe  alike. 

The  report  of  the  Commission  of  Immigration 
of  the  state  of  New  York  presents  a  table  of  for- 
eign born  white  offenders  in  the  state's  prisons 
In  1904,  but  unfortunately  does  not  classify  the 
Jews  as  such.  However,  if  one  took  the  entire 
number  of  criminals  tabulated  under  the  countries 
from  which  the  Jews  come,  namely :  Austria, 
Hungary,  Russia  and  Poland,  and  counted  all  as 
Jews — a  procedure  manifestly  unfair,  even  then 
the  prison  population  of  the  state  of  New  York 
contains  over  twelve  per  cent,  more  Irish  than  all 
the  natives  from  these  four  countries,  who  of 
course  are  not  all  Jews,  but  represent  different 
faiths. 

In  lieu  of  reliable  statistics,  therefore,  I  must 
trust  to  my  own  experience.  I  have  found  that 
grosser  criminality  among  the  Jews  is  a  more 


288  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

abnormal  phenomenon  than  among  most  of  the 
newer  immigrant  groups.  In  my  intimate  ac- 
quaintance with  a  number  of  Jewish  communities 
in  Europe,  I  know  some  as  large  as  10,000  souls, 
where  such  crimes  as  theft,  robbery  and  murder 
are  never  committed ;  yet  where  cheating,  fraudu- 
lent bankruptcy  and  receiving  stolen  goods  are 
not  uncommon. 

The  Jew  has  done  himself  almost  irreparable 
injury  by  his  protest  against  the  reading  of  the 
Bible,  and  Christmas  exercises  in  the  public 
schools  and  in  his  attitude  towards  Sunday  laws. 
In  both  cases  he  has  shown  himself  intolerant,  and 
has  alienated  staunch  friends  whose  help  and 
sympathy  he  may  need  in  the  day  of  tribulation. 
As  a  citizen  and  patriot,  he  is  everywhere  giving 
evidence  of  his  devotion ;  while  in  the  struggle 
for  the  coming  of  a  better  day  in  the  government 
of  our  cities  and  of  the  state,  he  has  done  his  full 
share ;  indeed,  among  the  newer  immigrant 
groups,  he  has  furnished  to  that  cause  by  far  the 
largest  quota. 

There  are  several  points  at  which  the  Jew  does 
not  satisfactorily  answer  the  questions  I  ask.  He 
provides  far  too  large  a  number  of  those,  who,  as 
a  class,  seem  unnecessary  at  the  present  stage  of 
our  economic  development;  he  presents  too 
solid  a  differentiated  group,  will  retard  proper 
adjustment  and  increase  existing  race  antago- 
nisms. His  attitude  towards  the  manifestation  of 


The  JEW  in  The  IMMIGRANT  PROBLEM    289 

the  religious  spirit  in  our  public  schools,  his  in- 
tolerance towards  certain  religious  practices  which 
are  fundamentally  ethical  and  social,  but  not 
necessarily  sectarian,  will  more  and  more  alienate 
those  Americans  who  have  been  most  hospitable 
towards  him  and  upon  whose  good  will  he  is  de- 
pendent, economically  and  socially,  if  not  polit- 
ically. 

These,  I  think,  are  the  sore  spots  of  the  prob- 
lem ;  and  if  the  Jew  is  as  shrewd  as  he  is  painted, 
he  will  look  to  their  healing ;  while  if  the  Amer- 
can  is  as  charitable  as  I  think  him  to  be,  he  will 
give  the  Jew  full  time  for  reconvalescence. 


XX 

FROM  FIFTH  AVENUE  TO  THE  GHETTO 

IT  has  always  been  dangerous  for  the  com- 
mon mortal  who  was  the  spokesman  of  his 
kind  to  eat  at  the  king's  table;  for  the 
tyrant  at  close  range  proved  an  admirable  host 
and  pleasant  gentleman,  whose  tender  meats  and 
delicate  wines  covered  a  "  multitude  of  sins." 

When,  after  having  eaten  lunch  on  the  East 
Side  for  a  week,  one  receives  an  invitation  to 
luncheon  on  Fifth  Avenue,  even  the  most  scru- 
pulous may  temporize,  and  I  confess  that,  feeling 
highly  flattered,  I  tossed  my  scruples  to  the 
winds  and  accepted  the  invitation. 

The  feast  began  for  me,  when  my  eyes  rested 
on  the  splendid  architecture  of  the  palatial  resi- 
dence, its  furnishings,  marbles  and  pictures,  which 
appealed  to  my  artistic  sense  and  almost  repro- 
duced the  atmosphere  of  the  refinement  and 
culture  of  those  lands  in  which  they  had  their 
birth.  In  the  winter  garden  where  fountains 
played,  and  rare  flowers  nodded  their  bedewed 
heads,  filling  the  air  with  fragrance,  I  forgot  the 
squalor  of  the  East  Side  and  the  darkness  and 

dampness  of  that  raw,  February  day. 

290 


From  FIFTH  AVENUE  to  The  GHETTO    291 

With  the  luncheon  I  was  less  pleased ;  for 
frankly,  I  prefer  noodle  soup  and  Gulyas  to 
French  snails  and  terrapin. 

To  my  plebeian  palate  the  snails  tasted  like 
mucilage  flavoured  with  garlic,  and  the  terrapin 
like  fricasseed  Turkish  towels. 

Of  more  importance  than  the  menu  was  my 
host,  whose  every  word  betrayed  the  conscious- 
ness of  his  power  and  his  ignorance  of  those 
lesser  folk,  as  whose  champion  he  had  invited  me 
to  be  his  guest 

"What  can  be  done  to  stay  the  power  of 
Socialism  ?  " 

"  How  can  we  keep  out  Black  Hands  and 
Anarchists  ?  " 

To  him,  immigrants,  Socialists  and  Anarchists 
were  synonymous  terms.  My  speech  was  not  yet 
dulled  by  the  luncheon  or  my  brain  clouded  by 
the  smoke  of  his  Havana  cigars,  and  I  gave  him 
such  plain  answers  as  I  might  have  given  after 
lunching  on  noodle  soup  and  Gulyas. 

My  words  were  as  unpalatable  to  him  as  his 
snails  and  terrapin  were  to  me  ;  for  I  told  him 
that  Anarchists  live  in  brown  stone  houses  and 
that  Socialism  is  being  fed  and  nourished  on  Fifth 
Avenue.  Our  views  were  as  far  apart  as  our 
bank  accounts,  and  to  argue  with  him  seriously 
would  have  been  as  useless  as  it  would  have  been 
poor  taste.  He  became  more  human  as  the 
luncheon  progressed  from  its  airy  and  aristo- 


292  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

cratic  entrees  to  the  more  democratic  and  sub- 
stantial roast  beef  and  potatoes. 

When  we  reached  pumpkin  pie,  one  of  the  few 
connecting  links  with  his  humble  past,  he  had 
quite  lost  his  critical  sternness,  and  asked  my  ad- 
vice upon  so  delicate  a  matter  as  how  to  give  his 
wayward  sons  a  grappling  place  for  the  upbuild- 
ing of  character. 

I  suggested  work  in  the  Settlements ;  but  he 
regarded  them  with  suspicion,  declaring  that 
they  are  irreligious  and  a  breeding  place  for 
Socialism.  He  listened  with  indifference  to  my 
defense  of  these  institutions  which  I  regard  as 
among  the  most  valuable  agencies  we  have  for 
the  common  good.  I  suggested  some  public 
service  for  the  community  or  the  state. 

"  Politics  ?  "  he  asked  quizzically ;  "  it's  a  dirty 
game.  I  want  my  boys  to  help  me  take  care  of 
the  interests  I  have." 

I  did  not  know  what  those  interests  were,  nor 
did  I  care  to  inquire,  and  luncheon  being  over,  I 
rose  to  take  leave. 

"Where  are  you  going?"  asked  my  host, 
rather  abruptly. 

"  To  the  East  Side,"  I  replied. 

He  wondered  whether  I  was  not  afraid  to  go 
there,  and  when  I  told  him  that  I  felt  safer  in  the 
Ghetto  at  night  than  I  should  feel  two  blocks 
west  of  his  palace,  he  asked  whether  he  might 
accompany  me. 


From  FIFTH  AVENUE  to  The  GHETTO    293 

Knowing  the  free  and  easy  ways  of  the  Ghetto 
I  assured  him  a  hearty  welcome  ;  so  we  left  his 
home  together  and  took  the  car  for  Houston 
Street  and  Avenue  B  to  attend  the  Gulyas  ban- 
quet to  be  given  by  the  "  Bolsover  Sick  and 
Benefit  Association,"  in  its  hall  on  Houston  Street. 

Sunday  afternoon  is  the  day  on  which  the  East 
Side  looks  its  best.  Its  squalor  is  temporarily 
hid  beneath  the  festal  garb  of  the  rest  day  ;  the 
children  are  still  clean  after  their  weekly  scrub- 
bing, and  the  mothers  sit  on  the  stoops,  gossip- 
ing and  watching  with  the  Old  World  timidity 
their  agile  flocks  playing  in  the  middle  of  the 
street,  also  fairly  clean  in  comparison  with  its 
condition  on  the  busier  work  days,  when  the  ref- 
use of  push-carts  and  ash  cans  covers  it. 

My  millionaire  host  evidently  found  pleasure 
in  this  human  mass.  He  saw  children  who 
seemed  happier  than  his  own  ;  for  although  they 
had  fewer  pleasures,  tHey  had  no  governess  to  dog 
their  footsteps,  no  maid  to  keep  them  from  exer- 
tion and  no  fear  of  microbes  or  bacteria. 

Here  in  the  Ghetto  all  the  unrestrained  child 
nature  asserted  itself,  and  being  children  they 
had  no  thought  for  the  morrow  and  having 
been  born  in  America,  they  were  boisterously 
happy. 

My  host  decided  that  after  all  humanity  on  Hous- 
ton Street  is  not  so  different  from  that  on  Fifth 
Avenue.  The  women,  especially  the  younger 


294  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

ones,  were  gowned  as  fashionably  although  less 
extravagantly  ;  pony  coats  being  the  style  on 
Fifth  Avenue  were  also  found  on  Houston  Street, 
and  most  of  the  women  who  paraded  both 
streets  looked  very  much  as  if  they  belonged  to 
the  same  herd. 

Hats  were  as  expansive  if  not  as  expensive  in 
this  hemisphere  of  the  social  world  as  in  his 
own ;  while  pride  and  social  prejudice  were 
common  properties  of  both. 

Our  entrance  into  the  lodge  room,  on  the 
fourth  floor,  over  a  Kosher  restaurant,  was  an- 
nounced by  the  outer  guard,  after  which  a 
committee  came  out  to  meet  us.  Then  pledg- 
ing us  to  secrecy  we  were  escorted  to  places  of 
honour  at  the  right  and  left  of  the  Grand  Master 
of  the  lodge. 

The  small  room  was  completely  filled  by  over 
one  hundred  members,  and  after  the  business 
under  discussion  was  finished,  we  were  duly 
introduced  and  addresses  of  welcome  were  made 
by  officers  and  prominent  members. 

I  doubt  that  my  fellow  guest  ever  listened  to 
addresses  which  he  enjoyed  more  than  those  he 
then  heard,  spoken  in  broken  yet  picturesque 
language ;  and  I  am  sure  he  never  before 
realized  that  such  lofty  sentiments  lodged  in 
such  humble  hearts  and  amid  such  forbidding 
surroundings. 

These  hundred  and  more  men,  we  were  told, 


From  FIFTH  AVENUE  to  The  GHETTO    295 

were  bound  together  in  fellowship  to  help  one 
another  when  unemployed,  to  support  and  nurse 
one  another  when  sick,  to  pay  the  last  honours 
to  the  dead  and  to  protect  the  widows  and  the 
orphans. 

And  that  was  not  all.  It  is  the  object  of  this 
lodge  to  work  for  mutual  intellectual  improve- 
ment, and  although  politics  are  tabooed,  the 
lodge  strives  to  develop  noble,  patriotic  ideals 
among  its  members. 

Of  the  men  who  spoke,  I  have  known  some 
from  their  childhood,  and  all  of  them  since  their 
arrival  in  the  United  States. 

It  will  not  break  the  pledge  of  secrecy  to  say 
a  word  about  these  men,  typical  immigrants 
from  Hungary. 

The  Grand  Master  was  born  in  a  Jewish  home 
in  which  the  best  traditions  of  the  Hebrew  faith 
were  adhered  to.  I  have  been  there  many  a 
time  carrying  messages  from  son  to  parent,  and 
it  was  always  a  delight  to  meet  the  saintly  old 
father  and  mother  who  have  never  ceased  being 
homesick  for  their  boy.  He  has  gone  through 
a  hard  school  in  America,  from  sweat  shop  to 
laundry  ;  and  now  he  is  a  letter  carrier. 

The  Past  Grand  Master  is  a  wood-worker  who 
tried  business,  but  failed  and  is  now  back  at  his 
bench. 

Another  is  a  metal  worker,  and  his  calloused 
hands  prove  that  he  obeys  the  Divine  injunction, 


296  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

and  earns  his  bread  by  the  sweat  of  his 
brow. 

The  man  who  proposed  our  being  made 
honorary  members  of  the  lodge  had  entered  the 
University  of  Vienna,  suffered  moral  bankruptcy 
and  ran  away  to  America.  He  is  a  cloak 
presser. 

The  man  who  seconded  his  motion  is  a  waiter, 
the  prodigal  son  of  a  rich  father,  brought  low  by 
his  iniquities  ;  but  kept  from  utter  ruin  by  the 
fellowship  of  these  men. 

I  know  the  record  of  them  all ;  good  and  bad 
records,  like  those  of  other  groups  of  men  ;  but 
every  one  of  them  is  now  earning  his  daily  bread 
and  is  contributing  something  to  the  wealth  and 
the  weal  of  the  great  city. 

My  millionaire  friend  frankly  confessed  that 
he  had  never  seen  a  "  bunch "  of  men  which 
impressed  him  more  favourably  than  these — and 
well  they  might  impress  him  ;  for  they  all  looked 
like  toilers.  Labour  had  bent  their  forms,  parched 
their  skin  and  shadowed  their  eyes. 

It  was  a  long  meeting,  until  far  into  the  night. 
Several  times  the  outer  guard  had  announced 
that  the  Gulyas  was  ready  ;  but  not  even  the 
odour  of  its  rich  sauce  which  pervaded  the 
building  could  stop  the  flow  of  eloquence,  once 
set  in  motion,  or  curb  the  eagerness  with  which 
rival  candidates  battled  for  office. 

At  last  the  Grand  Master  smote  his  desk  with 


From  FIFTH  AVENUE  to  The  GHETTO    297 

his  gavel  for  the  last  time  and  the  "  meetunk  " 
was  adjourned. 

In  proper  order  and  ceremoniously,  we  were 
conducted  to  the  basement  of  the  Kosher 
restaurant.  The  steaming  Gulyas  was  on  the 
tables,  beer  and  wine  awaited  the  thirsty  guests 
and  the  banquet  began  even  before  all  the 
members  of  the  Boisover  Association  were  fairly 
seated. 

My  companion  looked  askance  at  the  bowls 
of  Gulyas  with  its  red  gravy ;  but  it  wooed  his 
appetite  through  his  nostrils  and  he  gained 
sufficient  courage  to  take  a  piece  of  the  well 
cooked  meat  with  its  dripping  sauce.  Then  I 
saw  him  eat  as  I  had  not  eaten  of  his  French 
snails  and  terrapin.  The  members  of  the  Society 
drank  their  modest  measures  of  beer  and  Hun- 
garian wine  as  toast  followed  toast. 

It  had  been  my  privilege  not  long  before  to 
have  a  conference  with  President  Roosevelt,  and 
as  I  rose  to  toast  the  chief  magistrate  of  the 
United  States,  I  repeated  a  few  of  his  trenchant 
sentences.  "  Elyen  !  Elyen  ! "  the  men  shouted 
when  I  mentioned  his  name ;  and  when  I  said 
that  the  President  had  expressed  to  me  the  hope 
that  we  strangers  should  so  live  that  the  country 
which  gave  us  "  sanctuary,"  a  place  to  work  in 
and  to  live  in,  might  be  proud  of  us — the  en- 
thusiastic "  Ely  ens  1 "  seemed  unending.  After 
the  banquet,  the  man  who  had  successfully  run 


298  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

for  the  secretaryship  invited  us  to  come  into  his 
home,  not  far  away.  My  host,  having  had  a 
taste  of  the  East  Side  and  wanting  more,  readily 
accepted  the  invitation. 

We  found  this  home  in  the  second  story  of  a 
tenement  house  on  East  Ninth  Street.  We  en- 
tered through  the  kitchen,  and  in  the  one  other 
room,  living  room,  sleeping  room  and  nursery 
combined,  was  the  man's  wife  with  their  three 
daughters.  The  youngest  was  in  bed,  the  older 
one  was  reading,  while  the  oldest  was  entertain- 
ing friends — two  or  three  girls  and  a  young  man, 
her  "  steady  company."  The  room  was  crowded, 
but  clean,  and  my  Fifth  Avenue  friend  sat 
down  and  looked  at  the  novel  picture  before 
him. 

The  young  people  chatted  about  the  recent 
ball  of  the  Bolsover  Sick  and  Benefit  Association, 
of  clothes  and  beaux ;  very  much  as  they  talk  of 
balls  and  clothes  and  beaux  on  Fifth  Avenue. 

Refreshments  were  offered  us,  and  then  the 
father  told  of  his  good  fortune  in  having  been 
elected  secretary  of  his  lodge.  Every  one  was 
delighted ;  but  the  younger  daughter,  this  little 
Jewish  child,  said :  "  Papa,  why  don't  you  run 
for  president,  once  ?  " 

He  replied  :  "  My  child,  don't  you  knows  that 
I  gets  paid  for  being  secretary,  and  gets  nothing 
for  being  president?" 

Upon  which,  this  child  of  the  Ghetto  faced  her 


From  FIFTH  AVENUE  to  The  GHETTO    299 

father  half  angrily,  crying :  "  Why,  papa,  don't 
you  know  that  honour  is  more  than  money  ?  " 

We  left  the  tenement  house  together  and 
walked  across  to  Broadway,  all  along  that  gaily 
lighted  thoroughfare,  illy  named  the  White  Way. 
Theatres  and  concert  halls  were  being  emptied, 
and  we  were  jostled  by  the  crowds.  My  friend 
spoke  never  a  word  until  we  reached  the  marble 
steps  of  his  home.  Then,  pressing  my  hand,  he 
said,  with  almost  a  tenderness  in  his  voice: 
"  Honour  is  more  than  money." 


XXI 

FROM  LAKE  SKUTARI  TO  LAKE  CHAUTAUQUA 

WHEN  I  told  a  group  of  friends  that  I 
was  to  speak  to  the  Albanians  of 
Jamestown,  N.  Y.,  one  of  them,  who 
knew  both  her  history  and  her  geography  un- 
commonly well,  said,  questioningly :  "  Albanians? 
Are  those  the  people  with  white  hair  and  pink 
eyes?"  Then,  realizing  that  Albinos  and  Alba- 
nians are  not  identical,  and  being  genuine  enough 
not  to  conceal  her  ignorance,  she  asked :  "  Do 
you  mean  the  people  from  Albany,  N.  Y.  ?  " 

She  may  be  pardoned  for  not  knowing  who 
the  Albanians  are,  although  they  are  one  of  the 
oldest  European  peoples,  who  have  kept  a  corner 
of  that  continent  turbulent,  in  the  attempt  to 
wrest  from  their  master,  the  Turk,  the  right  of 
political  existence. 

One  cannot  say  that  the  Balkan  would  have 
been  a  peaceful  nook  had  it  not  been  for  these 
Ghegs  and  Tosks,  as  the  two  main  divisions  of 
the  Albanians  are  called ;  but  certainly,  the  his- 
tory of  Turk,  Greek  and  Southern  Slav  would 
have  been  different  had  it  not  been  for  the  Al- 
banians' clinging  tenaciously  to  ancient  rights, 
and  their  many  struggles  against  continuous  op- 

300 


>-' 


•C.Z 

H  rt 


_    rt 


7.    (4 

o  ™ 


From  SKUTARI  to  CHAUTAUQUA    301 

pression.  The  new  regime  in  Turkey  feels  this  Al- 
banian iron  in  its  veins,  for  one  of  the  leaders  in 
the  new  parliament  is  of  this  race,  as  are  many 
of  the  most  virile  editors  of  Turkish  newspapers. 
Both  officers  and  privates  in  the  army  which 
wrought  the  overthrow  of  the  Sultan  are  of  these 
same  people,  who  regard  themselves  as  superior 
to  the  Turks  and  to  whom  no  greater  insult  can 
be  given  than  to  call  them  by  the  name  of  their 
oppressors. 

In  my  travels  through  the  Balkan,  I  have  often 
passed  through  some  portion  of  Albania,  which 
is  a  narrow  strip  of  land  along  the  Adriatic,  be- 
tween Montenegro  and  Greece,  with  much  of  its 
interior  inaccessible.  Its  savage  state  was  en- 
couraged by  Turkey,  which  maintained  there  a 
borderland  against  the  power  and  ideals  of  the 
West. 

Every  village  was  an  armed  camp,  every 
house  a  fortress.  Tribal  warfare  never  ceased ; 
neither  the  holy  seasons  of  the  Church  nor  har- 
vest time  knew  the  blessings  of  peace.  Every 
Albanian  was  a  soldier  or  brigand  and  some- 
times both,  loyal  to  those  to  whom  he  had 
sworn  loyalty  ;  but  the  musket  was  law  between 
him  and  the  stranger,  and  the  bullet  its  executor. 

Trained  for  slaughter,  the  Albanians  spurned 
common  theft,  but  did  not  shrink  from  murder, 
for  pillage  or  for  revenge.  The  last  time  I  saw 
them  at  home,  was  on  the  shores  of  Lake  Skutari, 


302  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

retreating  to  their  native  mountains  in  the  Al- 
banian Alps,  after  having  pillaged  a  Montenegrin 
village,  one  of  the  few  prosperous  enough  to 
make  a  raid  worth  while.  They  were  resting  on 
a  rocky  hillside,  and  as  I  attempted  to  take  a 
snapshot,  they  resisted  religiously,  good  Moham- 
medans that  they  were,  by  emptying  their  rifles 
after  me,  doing  no  more  damage  than  frigh ten- 
ing  my  worn-out  team  into  a  gallop. 

To  say  that  the  next  time  I  saw  them,  was  in 
the  prayer-meeting  room  of  a  Congregational 
church,  describes  graphically  the  difference  be- 
tween then  and  now ;  for  it  was  a  docile,  con- 
ventional looking  company  of  men  that  I  met ; 
their  fierce  mustachios  shaved  or  cropped,  their 
muscular  bodies  clothed  in  the  commonplace 
garments  of  our  civilization.  Their  eager,  black 
eyes  alone  spoke  of  the  hot,  Albanian  blood  in 
their  veins  not  yet  chilled  in  our  cool,  worka- 
day atmosphere. 

Neither  Gheg  nor  Tosk  ever  had  a  chief  like 
the  one  who  led  them  that  night  in  singing  the 
"  Shcipetari "  song,  the  battle  hymn  of  Albania ; 
for  he  who  wore  the  red  skullcap  of  the  chief  and 
beat  time  as  they  sang,  whose  placid  face  was 
lighted  by  a  deeper  passion  than  their  own,  was 
an  American, — Arthur  Baldwin,  Patent  Attorney 
and  lover  of  common  folks. 

One  by  one  he  had  gathered  them  as  they 
drifted  into  the  city  by  the  lake.  "  Dagos  "  they 


v  v. 


\°i   '•«.. .-•'     , 

'"'"'iiuim^ 


From  SKUTARI  to  CHAUTAUQUA    303 

were  called ;  homeless,  neglected  and  treated 
with  scorn.  One  after  another  they  swore  fealty 
to  their  new  chief,  until  now  every  one  of  them 
acknowledges  the  sovereignty  of  his  passion  over 
them. 

Half  savage  as  the  Albanian  is,  he  has  a  fine 
feeling  for  womanhood.  Woman  is  man's  for- 
tress ;  for  he  is  safe  from  the  enemy's  bullets 
when  in  her  company,  and  she  may  kill  the  man 
who  has  broken  his  troth  with  her. 

While  the  men  are  loyal  to  Mr.  Baldwin,  they 
feel  for  Mrs.  Baldwin  a  sacred  awe,  and  well  she 
deserves  their  reverence ;  for  she  has  been 
mother  and  sister  to  these  homeless  youths  and 
has  taught  them  the  English  language  by  a 
method  of  her  own. 

Most  of  the  Albanians  in  Jamestown,  and 
many  of  those  who  have  scattered  east  and 
west  from  there,  carry  with  them  Mrs.  Baldwin's 
letters,  which  are  the  English  lessons  for  the 
week,  combined  with  cordial  greetings,  a  word 
of  good  cheer,  and  advice. 

In  the  prayer-meeting  room  of  that  church  of 
the  pilgrims,  these  newest  of  the  pilgrims  sang 
that  night  their  national  hymn. 

Ce  me  gne  te  Kollozhegut, 

Ch'u  fifiua  Shocerija, 

Ce  me  gne  te  Kollozhegut 

Ch'u  fillua  Shocerija 

Ch'u  fillua,  brtnda  m'u  ne  Sofij^ 

Per  skoli  nde  Shciperi. 


304  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

Ch'u  fillua,  br^nda  m'u  ne  Sofij6, 

Per  skoli  nde  Shciperi. 

Burra,  burra  dj6ma,  burra  djem, 
Burra  djem  perpicuni. 
Burra,  buna  dj6ma,  mbuhuni, 
Mbushuni  m6  dashuri. 


S'j6mi  Gr6ker  as  Bulgare, 
J6ni  trima  Shcipetare 
S'j&ni  Gr6ker  as  Bulgarc, 
J6mi  trima  Shcipetare 
Dhente  Zoti  la  me  la, 
Afer  gher  nde  P6rendi, 
Dhente  Zoti  la  me  la, 
Afer  gh6r  nde  P6rendi. 

Burra,  burra  djema,  burra  djem, 

Burra  djem  perpicuni. 

Burra,  burra  dj6ma,  mbushuni, 

Mbushuni  m6  dashuri. 


The  music  is  savagely  martial,  although  the 
words  are  commonplace ;  for  the  Albanian,  like 
the  rest  of  us,  is  thanking  God  that  he  is  not  as 
other  people,  especially  the  detested  Greeks  and 
Bulgarians. 

After  the  singing,  the  men  danced.  Shades 
of  the  Puritan  ancestors  1  Dancing  in  a  prayer- 
meeting  room  1  But  inasmuch  as  these  were 
semi-civilized  people,  the  dance  was  decent  and 
full  of  religious  symbolism.  The  men  swayed 
their  agile  bodies  to  the  wild  notes,  bent  the 
knee,  then  two  by  two  joined  hands,  forming  a 
cross ;  thus  making  their  dance  an  act  of 
worship. 


From  SKUTARI  to  CHAUTAUQUA    305 

Then  I  spoke  to  them  of  their  mountain  home 
and  of  this  one ;  of  their  old  tribulations  and 
their  new  opportunities ;  of  their  old  feuds  and 
their  new  friendships.  When  I  finished,  they 
crowded  around  me  and  pressed  my  hand,  be- 
cause they  had  found  one  who  knew  them,  their 
fierce  nature  and  their  unsurpassed  devotion  to 
their  native  land.  I  could  not  help  thinking  of 
their  brothers  who,  ten  years  before,  chased  me 
along  the  shore  of  Lake  Skutari  with  guns. 

While  I  am  sure  that  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Baldwin 
would  not  desire  praise  for  the  work  they  are 
doing  among  these  people,  the  methods  they 
have  used  and  the  spirit  which  has  animated 
them  are  so  remarkable  as  to  deserve  emulation. 
Their  basis  of  approach  to  the  Albanians  was 
undisguised  and  unadulterated  friendship.  They 
liked  common  folks.  As  other  people  on  the 
shores  of  Lake  Chautauqua  liked  automobiles  or 
steam  yachts  of  particular  makes,  so  among 
folks,  the  Baldwins  liked  Albanians.  Being 
their  friends,  they  wanted  to  do  them  good,  and 
what  they  most  needed  was  ability  to  understand 
English ;  so  they  taught  them  English  and  with 
the  new  language  they  have  given  them  the  at- 
mosphere of  home  and  impressed  upon  them  the 
need  of  character  to  save  them  from  the  new 
temptations. 

Wiser  than  some  others  who  have  attempted 
to  do  good  to  strangers,  they  restrained  their  re- 


306  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

ligious  ardour  and  left  Greek  Orthodox  and  Mo- 
hammedan undisturbed  in  their  faith,  except  as 
by  their  example  they  taught  them  that  love  is 
more  effective  than  its  symbols  and  deeds  more 
vital  than  creeds.  Neither  have  they  tried  to 
deaden  the  old  patriotism  ;  and  the  one  great, 
starry  virtue  of  the  Albanian  which  is  almost  un- 
paralleled, is  his  devotion  to  his  country. 

After  I  had  spoken  that  night,  I  was  escorted 
to  a  restaurant  kept  by  one  of  them,  and  there 
over  the  steaming  coffee  we  talked  of  Albania's 
griefs  and  hopes. 

Mr.  Baldwin  knew  every  nook  and  corner  of 
the  country  and  its  history.  He  spoke  of  Alba- 
nia as  if  he  had  been  cradled  among  those  far- 
away mountains,  instead  of  on  the  placid  plains 
of  the  Middle  West  He  deplored  the  fact  that 
they  had  no  schools  in  which  their  own  speech 
was  taught,  that  religion  held  them  apart, 
through  factions  of  Greek  Orthodox,  Roman 
Catholics  and  Mohammedans ;  and  he  talked  of 
Scanderberg,  their  national  hero,  as  if  he  were 
speaking  of  Washington  or  Lincoln. 

Mr.  Baldwin  had  invited  me  to  Jamestown,  to 
counsel  with  his  men,  who  are  doing  the  most 
menial  tasks  to  earn  money  for  Albania.  At 
that  time  all  was  dark  in  Turkey,  and  a  visionary 
alone  could  have  held  out  hope  for  an  autono- 
mous Albania. 

Practical  American  that  I  have  become,  I  told 


From  SKUTARI  to  CHAUTAUQUA    307 

them  to  save  their  money,  start  bank  accounts 
and  become  prosperous  Americans.  They  knew 
better ;  at  least  they  had  more  faith.  They  were 
then  training  a  man  in  an  American  college,  for 
political  and  social  leadership ;  a  young  Alba- 
nian noble,  who  spoke  eight  languages,  had 
faith  in  God  and  man  and,  above  all,  in  Albania. 

Until  long  past  midnight  I  talked  of  peace 
while  they  talked  of  war ;  I  spoke  of  submission, 
while  they  talked  of  resistance ;  I  thought  I 
knew  Turkey  and  the  Turk,  while  they  had  faith 
in  Albania  and  the  Albanians.  The  recent  de- 
velopments prove  that  their  faith  was  better  than 
my  knowledge. 

When  the  Jamestown  Albanians  scattered  as 
far  east  as  Natick,  Mass.,  and  as  far  west  as  St. 
Louis,  Mo.,  their  old  friends  aroused  interest  in 
them  everywhere.  In  Natick,  Mass.,  a  devoted 
pastor,  Rev.  Morris  H.  Turk,  has  matched  the 
Jamestown  work  for  these  "twentieth  century 
pilgrims "  as  he  calls  them.  He  has  learned 
enough  Albanian  to  lead  in  devotions,  and  has 
fitted  out  a  chapel  with  chancel,  altar  and  pic- 
tures. 

"  We  began,"  he  says,  "  where  the  Greek  Or- 
thodox church  left  off.  We  secured  some  Alba- 
nian hymn-books  from  Monastir,  and  thus  we 
were  enabled  to  conduct  a  somewhat  formal  re- 
ligious service,  largely  in  the  Albanian  language. 
Socials,  entertainments,  receptions,  picnics  and 


308  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

other  diversions  supplement  the  religious  and 
educational  work  done  at  Natick. 

"The  results  have  been  remarkable.  Two  of 
the  men  are  fitting  for  college,  a  dozen  or  more 
have  blended  completely  into  the  parish  life,  and 
best  of  all,  a  hundred  or  more  have  had  the  up- 
lift of  friendliness  and  acquaintance  with  our 
American  ideals." 

Mr.  Turk  is  making  a  tour  of  Albania  this 
summer  for  the  express  purpose  of  rendering  his 
service  to  these  people  more  effective ;  to  see 
life  from  their  view-point  and  to  acquire  a  better 
knowledge  of  their  difficult  language. 

Mr.  Guy  J.  Fansher  writes  from  Boston,  where 
he  has  become  interested  in  them  :  "  Their  love 
of  country  is  very  strong  and,  like  the  old  He- 
brew prophets  in  Israel  and  Judah,  we  find  it 
necessary  to  carry  on  whatever  religious  work 
we  may  wish  to  do  side  by  side  with  their  love 
of  country.  This  same  love  of  country  has  been 
evidenced  in  their  translating  of  the  Orthodox 
Church  ritual  into  the  Albanian  and  using  that 
in  their  church  service  monthly  in  a  rented  hall. 

"I  found  the  men  apt  to  stay  indoors  too 
closely,  so  during  the  winter  gave  them  work  in 
gymnastics,  using  dumb-bells,  basket-ball,  etc. 
We  had  some  flash-light  pictures  taken  of  these 
classes,  which  the  boys  were  eager  to  buy  and 
send  home. 

"  The  men  are  close  readers  of  the  daily  pa- 


From  SKUTARI  to  CHAUTAUQUA    309 

pers,  soon  get  interested  in  politics  (were  strong 
for  Taft),  get  out  naturalization  papers  as  soon 
as  possible,  and  are  proud  to  be  in  America. 
They  soon  learn  to  dress  in  neat  suits  of  brown 
which  is  very  becoming  to  them  with  their  dark 
skin  and  hair. 

"  The  men  seem  to  have  good  control  of  their 
habits,  seldom  drinking  to  excess ;  the  cigarette 
is  always  with  them,  however ;  the  social  vice  is 
not  theirs  to  any  great  degree ;  they  are  neat 
about  their  rooms  and  do  not  crowd  together  as 
the  Italians  or  Jews.  These  things  have  rather 
assisted  our  work  among  them ;  their  exceeding 
shyness  has  been  hard  to  overcome ;  they  must 
be  led,  not  driven." 

"They  must  be  led,  not  driven,"  and  Mr. 
Baldwin  adds  :  "  They  must  be  trusted,  not  sus- 
pected ;  loved,  and  not  merely  tolerated." 

The  events  in  Turkey  have  surprised  every 
one  who  has  an  interest  in  the  Balkan  question. 
The  young  Albanian  noble,  already  referred  to, 
is  back  in  Albania,  somewhere  near  Lake  Sku- 
tari,  helping  shape  the  future  of  his  country  ;  for 
he  is  a  leading  member  of  the  Albanian  Com- 
mittee. 

On  Lake  Chautauqua  his  countrymen  still 
work  and  pray  and  hope  for  an  autonomous  Al- 
bania, with  schools  and  churches  in  which  they 
shall  be  free  to  use  their  language  and  in  which 
they  shall  have  privileges  commensurate  with 


310  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

their  sacrifices  and  with  the  burdens  they  have 
borne  for  Turkey. 

Then  they  will  sing  in  Kortia  the  song  they 
sang  in  Jamestown,  when  we  parted  before  the 
early  dawn  of  a  winter's  morning.  It  was  a  na- 
tional hymn,  which  the  Albanians  have  a  right 
to  sing,  although  they  sing  it  under  the  crescent 
banner  of  Turkey ;  for  it  is  a  translation  of  our 
— "  America." 

O  Zot  Ti  fucimath, 
Ndihna  si  ghdr  tashi 
Te  lut&ni ; 
Lardi  tet'apeme 
M6  ghithe  zfrnere : 
Per  dashurimne  T'ent 
Ce  shoheme. 


XXII 

THE  PROTESTANT  CHURCH  AND 
IMMIGRANT 

THE  one  institution  in  America  most 
gravely  concerned  with  the  coming 
and  staying  of  the  immigrant  is  the 
Protestant  church.  Each  ship-load  of  people 
from  Southern  and  Southeastern  Europe  in- 
creases the  already  crowded  Roman  Catholic 
parishes,  lays  foundations  for  the  perpetuation 
of  the  Greek  Orthodox  church  in  the  United 
States  and  enlarges  the  tents  of  Israel  whose 
camps  encircle  the  dying  churches. 

The  Protestant  church,  in  our  great  cities, 
pointing  to  the  decrease  in  her  membership,  as 
evidence  of  her  peril,  and  bravely  singing  "  On- 
ward Christian  soldiers,  Marching  as  to  war," 
moves  into  the  suburbs,  away  from  the  congested 
masses  and  among  the  attenuated  few. 

That  the  Protestant  church  has  endured  thus 
far,  that  its  ideals  are  still  dominant,  that  its 
preachers'  voices  are  still  heard  in  the  tumults 
of  our  Babels,  is  direct  evidence  that  some- 
where her  foundations  rest  upon  bed-rock  and 
that  the  Christian  faith  and  practice,  as  she  un- 


312  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

derstands  them,  are  essential  in  the  solution  ol 
the  problems  of  our  civilization.  Because  I  be- 
lieve this,  I  am  not  frightened  by  figures  but  am 
concerned  with  forces.  It  is  not  a  question  of 
the  ability  of  the  church  to  increase,  but  of  her 
willingness  to  decrease,  if  necessary,  in  the  at- 
tempt to  communicate  to  these  masses,  from  all 
races  and  religions,  her  passion  for  humanity  and 
her  devotion  to  the  Divine. 

I  am  not  at  all  concerned  regarding  the  in- 
ability of  the  Protestant  church  to  adjust  other 
men  to  her  creeds  or  to  adjust  herself  to  theirs ; 
but  I  am  deeply  concerned  with  her  inability  or 
unwillingness  to  make  good  her  professions  of 
democracy,  and  to  relate  herself  in  some  vital 
way  to  these  new  citizens  who  are  satiated  by 
creeds,  but  are  hungry  for  brotherhood ;  upon 
whom,  like  a  curse,  rest  the  damp  and  mould  of 
tombs  and  chapels,  but  who  have  been  untouched 
by  the  power  of  the  living,  redeeming  Christ,  as 
He  has  incarnated  Himself  in  His  followers. 

So  long  as  these  people  are  within  the  sphere 
of  Foreign  Missions,  in  "  Greenland's  Icy  Moun- 
tains," or  some  other  remote  and  romantic  place, 
they  are  the  subjects  of  prayer  and  the  recipients 
of  gifts  of  men  and  money ;  but  when  drawn  into 
the  radius  of  one's  immediate  neighbourhood, 
they  become  a  peril  which  threatens  everything, 
from  the  price  of  real  estate  to  the  foundation 
upon  which  the  church  rests.  There  is  no  ques- 


THE  PROTESTANT  CHURCH       313 

tion  that  in  many  cases  the  Protestant  church  is 
facing  this  problem  in  an  admirable  spirit ;  al- 
though very  often  expressing  it  in  a  way  calcu- 
lated to  alienate  rather  than  to  attract.  On  the 
whole  there  is  a  growing  desire  to  serve  this  new 
host  of  men,  to  help  them  adjust  themselves  more 
easily  to  their  new  environment  and  to  make  of 
them  conscious  human  beings,  consecrated  Chris- 
tians and  efficient  citizens. 

There  are  to-day  increasing  numbers  of  Prot- 
estant Christians  who  have  broken  away  from 
the  old  prejudice  against  the  Roman  Catholic 
church.  It  is  not  their  desire  to  alienate  faithful 
communicants  from  the  church  in  which  their 
individual  and  national  life  has  root  and  being ; 
but  they  recognize  certain  facts. 

First,  that  in  this  new  influx  of  immigrants 
there  is  an  appreciably  large  number  of  men 
who  have  fallen  heir  to  Protestant  traditions, 
without  fully  realizing  their  spiritual  inher- 
itance and  their  moral  obligations.  To  these, 
the  American  Protestant  churches  owe  the  duty 
of  interpreting  their  common  faith  in  its  practical 
terms. 

Second,  the  church  realizes  that  numbers  of 
men,  more  than  are  commonly  supposed,  among 
Roman  Catholics,  Greek  Orthodox  and  Jews,  are 
lost  to  their  respective  churches.  Many  of  them 
revert  to  infidelity  and  Paganism,  and  the  Prot- 
estant church  is  under  obligations  to  interpret  its 


3H  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

faith  in  rational  terms  to  these,  who  have  been 
touched  by  the  rationalism  of  our  times. 

One  cannot  believe  that  it  is  good  for  such 
men  to  be  left  under  the  influences  of  these  re- 
actions which  may  become  dangerous  to  the 
well-being  of  the  individual  and  of  the  State. 

Third,  the  church  finds  itself  surrounded  by 
large  masses  of  men,  ignorant  of  our  language, 
of  the  laws  of  health  and  of  the  land.  They 
come  from  countries  in  which  neither  Church  nor 
State  has  attempted  to  lift  them  out  of  ignorance 
and  its  attendant  superstition ;  and  whenever  the 
churches  in  whose  bosoms  these  people  have 
starved  in  the  Old  World  do  not  make  amends 
here  in  the  New,  the  Protestant  church  is  called 
upon  to  lift  them  into  a  better  knowledge  of  the 
nature  of  religion  and  into  a  better  conception 
of  human  relations,  both  for  her  own  sake  and 
for  the  sake  of  the  communities  which  she  wishes 
to  serve. 

This  she  must  do,  even  if  it  brings  her  under 
suspicion  of  proselyting;  although  with  my 
knowledge  of  nearly  all  the  agencies  engaged 
in  this  task  in  the  United  States,  I  am  convinced 
that  the  spirit  in  which  this  work  is  undertaken 
is  not  the  spirit  of  the  proselyter.  Indeed,  one 
of  the  growing  weaknesses  of  the  Protestant 
church  in  America  is  the  loss  of  those  deep  con- 
victions which  make  proselyting  easy ;  while  the 
number  of  those  who  have  the  courage  zealously 


THE  PROTESTANT  CHURCH      315 

to  pronounce  their  shibboleths  is  growing  smaller 
every  day. 

The  spirit  of  the  following  letter  justifies  its 
quotation,  for  it  is  an  admirable  example  of  the 
way  in  which  one  Protestant  church  is  trying  to 
meet  the  immigrant  problem. 

AVENUE  CONGREGATIONAL  CHURCH, 

HARTFORD,  CONN., 
Pastor's  Study,  December  77,  1907. 

I  am  writing  this  letter  to  you  as  an  office-bearer  in  the 
church  and  one  who  is  influential  in  forming  church  senti- 
ment and  policies.  It  concerns  the  relation  of  our  church 
to  the  Jews  who  are  crowding  into  the  streets  about  the 
church  in  ever-increasing  numbers.  The  Standing  Com- 
mittee has  earnestly  and  sympathetically  considered  the  sub- 
ject, as  befits  a  matter  of  the  first  importance  to  our  church. 

The  settling  of  these  Jews  close  about  us  is  easily  the 
event  of  greatest  importance  in  recent  years  in  the  field  of 
this  church.  It  would  be  folly,  and  in  the  end  impossible, 
for  us  to  look  upon  their  presence  with  indifference.  We 
must  not  drift  in  this  matter.  We  must  have,  as  a  church, 
an  intelligent  and  positive  policy  towards  them.  What 
shall  it  be  ? 

Some  of  us  have  probably  looked  upon  the  coming  of 
the  Jew  as  a  misfortune.  Is  he  not  also  an  opportunity  ? 
May  we  trace  the  providence  of  God  in  settling  him  about 
our  very  doors?  I  believe  that  we  may.  This  faith  grows 
in  me,  as  one  who  believes  that  Christ  is  to  be  Saviour  of 
all  the  nations. 

A  rabbi  in  Boston  said  recently,  "The  liberty  and 
friendliness  of  America  will  put  the  severest  strain  upon 
Jewish  exclusiveness  that  it  has  ever  met.  The  persecu- 


3i6  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

tions  of  Europe  have  failed  to  dissolve  our  nationality :  the 
kindness  of  America  may  succeed." 

In  the  light  of  this  sentiment,  which  I  share,  and  with  a 
great  confidence  in  the  Gospel,  I  propose  that  we  under- 
take definitely  a  Christian  ministry  to  these  Jews.  I 
recognize  that  an  attempt  at  immediate  propagandism 
would  probably  be  as  ineffective  as  it  would  be  unwise.  I 
appreciate  that  probably  few  if  any  open  conversions  will 
reward  our  labours  for  many  years. 

What  then  shall  we  attempt  ?  To  impress  upon  them 
the  spirit  of  the  Gospel  by  living  alongside  them  as  Chris- 
tians should  :  this  first  and  chiefly.  Let  us  do  this  in  the 
hope  that  as  their  old-world  superstitions  and  narrowness 
yield  to  the  light  of  America,  they  will  thus  choose  the 
Gospel  instead  of  infidelity.  Many  of  them  are  already 
choosing  the  latter. 

How  shall  we  begin  ?  By  treating  the  Jew  as  we  want 
to  be  treated.  In  other  words,  by  treating  him  not  as  a 
Jew,  but  as  a  man,  each  on  his  own  merits.  Recognize 
always  that  there  are  both  good  Jews  and  bad  Jews,  as 
well  as  good  Yankees  and  bad  Yankees.  Make  the  ac- 
quaintance of  both  men  and  women  :  and  of  their  children 
too.  Give  them  a  fair  chance  to  show  their  quality.  They 
are  neighbours.  They  are  interested  in  our  schools.  They 
are  fellow  citizens.  These  common  interests  give  oppor- 
tunity to  know  them  and,  if  we  will,  their  homes  also. 

Our  government  by  its  franchise  and  its  schools  wel- 
comes them  to  an  equal  opportunity  to  show  and  to  de- 
velop their  character.  The  churches  have  not  shown  a 
like  spirit.  Shall  the  state  be  more  Christian  than  the 
church  ? 

This  proposal  of  course  includes  our  attitude  towards 
the  Italians  and  al!  other  foreigners  among  us.  I  speak 


THE  PROTESTANT  CHURCH       317 

especially  of  the  Jews  because  they  are  far  the  most 
numerous  and  most  difficult  to  reach. 

If  a  score  or  even  a  dozen  of  us  should  undertake  to 
show  them  the  spirit  of  brotherhood  that  is  our  Christian 
boast,  and  should  seek  to  get  our  other  church -members  to 
do  the  same,  it  would  not  be  a  month  before  they  would 
be  feeling  and  speaking  of  our  good  will  towards  them. 
Meanwhile  we  can  be  watchful  for  opportunity  for  some 
special  ministry  to  them  or  their  children,  a  ministry  which 
shall  be  welcome  both  to  them  and  us.  The  habit  of 
Christian  neighbourliness  outlined  above  will  lay  the 
foundation  of  mutual  confidence  and  knowledge  necessary 
for  such  a  special  ministry. 

Have  you  faith  and  patience  for  such  a  long  campaign  ? 
Will  you  quietly  enlist  for  it  and  try  to  persuade  others  to 
do  the  same  ?  If  so,  will  you  kindly  tell  me  of  it  ?  We 
will  undertake  to  keep  one  another  informed  of  any  news 
of  progress. 

You  will  understand  why  this  letter  and  your  talks  with 
others  about  this  subject  should  be  confidential. 

In  the  name  of  Him  who  was  a  Jew, 

YOUR  PASTOR. 

The  Presbyterian  church  has  given  proof  of 
the  spirit  of  its  intent  by  putting  the  department 
of  Immigration  in  charge  of  Rev.  Charles  Stelzle, 
a  splendid  champion  of  the  rights  of  labouring 
men,  a  man  with  the  broadest  social  and  religious 
outlook  and  a  stranger  to  Pharisaic  cant. 

The  Rev.  Howard  N.  Grose,  D.  D.,  the  home 
mission  secretary  of  the  Baptist  church,  and  the 
men  associated  with  him  in  the  Home  Mission 


3i8  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

Council  of  the  Evangelical  churches,  seem  to  me 
to  possess  that  broad  outlook  upon  life,  that  ap- 
preciation of  true  values  which  render  impossible 
their  attempting  any  narrow,  sectarian  propa- 
ganda. 

The  action  of  the  International  Committee  of 
the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  in  placing  its  work  for  "  Young 
Men  and  Boys  of  Foreign  Parentage  "  in  charge 
of  so  competent  an  authority  as  Dr.  Peter 
Roberts,  the  author  of  "  Anthracite  Communi- 
ties,"— and  the  equipment  by  the  State  Com- 
mittee of  Pennsylvania  of  "  The  Expedition  for 
the  Study  of  Immigration  "  with  its  plans  for  a 
group  of  well  trained  college  men  as  secretaries 
for  immigrants,  are  additional  evidences  of  the 
spirit  which  animates  Protestantism  in  its  rela- 
tion to  the  immigrant 

There  are,  however,  two  fundamental  mistakes 
which  the  Protestant  church  has  made  in  her 
attempt  to  solve  the  problem  she  faces. 

First,  in  the  kind  of  results  she  tries  to 
obtain. 

Second,  in  the  kind  of  men  she  has  sent  to 
represent  her  among  the  immigrants. 

The  American  Protestant  of  the  Evangelical 
type  has  carried  his  business  into  the  church, 
but  not  always  the  church  into  his  business.  He 
expects  in  the  church,  results  which  can  be 
tabulated  under  the  head  of  profit  and  loss,  just 
as  he  expects  them  in  his  counting-room. 


THE  PROTESTANT  CHURCH       319 

"  Immediate  results  1 "  is  the  cry  of  the  con- 
stituents of  missionary  enterprises,  and  the 
result  is,  that  where  they  cannot  be  legitimately 
produced,  conversions  are  simulated  for  loaves 
and  fishes. 

I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  missionaries  have 
not  so  preached  and  practiced  the  Christian 
faith,  as  to  produce  in  their  hearers  a  desire  to 
adjust  their  own  lives  to  these  new  standards ; 
for  I  know  of  innumerable  cases  of  this  kind 
among  all  races  and  nationalities. 

However,  the  stress  laid  upon  "  immediate  re- 
sults," the  praise  and  money  lavished  upon  those 
who  can  produce  them,  the  "  showing  off "  of 
this  or  that  kind  of  converted  foreigner,  the 
neglect  of  those  who  face  real  difficulties 
honestly,  and  cannot  humbug  those  who  support 
them,  put  severe  temptation  in  the  way  of  mis- 
sionaries and  often  unconsciously  taint  their 
whole  endeavour. 

If  the  Christian  religion  expresses  itself  in  un- 
selfish devotion  to  the  noblest  cause, — the  service 
which  the  immigrant  needs  must  be  performed 
without  an  eye  constantly  upon  church  records. 

The  Social  Settlement  is  under  no  such  strain, 
and  its  work  is  like  "casting  bread  upon  the 
water "  without  expecting  it  back,  "  buttered " 
after  a  few*  days. 

For  a  long  time  and  even  for  all  time  with 
some  individuals  and  groups,  the  church  must 


320  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

be  willing  to  follow  this  Biblical  example  set  by 
an  institution  which  some  ill  informed  people 
suspect  of  being  irreligious. 

The  error  which  the  church  has  committed  in 
sending  poorly  prepared  men  to  minister  to  these 
immigrants  is  in  many  cases  as  irreparable  as  it 
is  inexcusable. 

An  ignorant  priesthood  is  more  bearable 
than  an  ignorant  ministry,  and  when  igno- 
rance is  coupled  with  insincerity,  as  it  is  in 
many  cases,  the  wrong  done  to  both  parties  is 
incalculable. 

In  their  haste  to  "  do  something,"  and  in  their 
eagerness  to  get  quick  results,  nearly  all  Protes- 
tant churches  have  pushed  into  the  ministry 
"converted  foreigners,"  many  of  whom  mis- 
represent the  church  which  sends  them  and  be- 
come a  stumbling-block  to  honest  seekers  after 
truth  and  an  insult  to  the  people  to  whom  they 
are  sent. 

An  example  of  this  lack  of  wisdom  is  shown 
in  one  of  the  most  interesting  missions  of  a 
really  valuable  type,  developed  in  West  Pitts- 
ton,  Pa.,  by  a  devoted  young  American  woman 
who,  in  a  remarkable  degree,  won  the  confidence 
of  the  Lithuanians  there.  She  lived  and 
laboured  among  them  and  created  a  centre  of 
influence  which  gave  great  promise  of  being 
permanent  in  its  effect.  Her  work,  however, 
was  much  too  indefinite  and  slow  for  the  "  hus- 


THE  PROTESTANT  CHURCH       321 

tling"  church  which  supported  her ;  so  a  converted 
Lithuanian  was  employed,  who  in  his  eagerness 
to  save  souls  told  the  people  whom  he  gathered 
to  hear  him  preach,  that  they  would  all  be 
damned  if  they  continued  going  to  the  Roman 
Catholic  church:  The  result  was  what  one 
might  expect.  The  Lithuanians  immediately 
forsook  the  mission  and  went  to  the  prohibited 
church. 

As  a  rule,  the  work  to  be  done  demands 
American  born  men  and  women  who  are 
imbued  by  the  spirit  of  service,  who  have  some 
linguistic  talent  and  much  consecrated  common 
sense. 

The  converted  foreigner,  even  if  well  trained, 
will  be  met  with  suspicion  by  many  groups  ;  for 
^0  them  he  is  a  traitor  to  their  religion  and  to 
their  national  life,  the  two  being  inseparable  to 
them. 

No  such  objection  can  be  made  to  the  Ameri- 
can worker,  who,  if  he  brings  patience  to  the 
tedious  task  of  winning  confidence,  if  he  has  an 
honest  desire  to  live  unselfishly  for  the  people  of 
a  neighbourhood,  if  he  gives  everything  and  ex- 
pects nothing  as  a  reward,  may  be  assured  that 
such  service  will  be  accepted  and  will  work  out 
its  results  in  God's  own  time. 

If  converted  immigrants  are  sent  among  these 
people,  they  should  have  a  long  testing  time  ;  a 
tutelage  and  training  which,  while  giving  them  a 


322  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

thorough  equipment  for  their  task,  will  not  spoil 
them  for  the  humble  work  it  will  involve. 

There  are  but  few  theological  seminaries 
properly  equipped  to  train  men  for  this  great 
work,  and  still  fewer  in  which  there  is  sufficient 
spirit  of  democracy  among  teachers  and  students 
to  receive  "  immigrants "  and  treat  them  like 
brothers. 

In  many  small,  industrial  communities  where 
the  "immigrants"  are  a  problem,  its  solution  is 
merely  a  question  of  the  attitude  of  the  churches 
towards  them. 

Nothing  can  be  more  repellent  than  the  atti- 
tude of  the  average  Protestant  Christian  towards 
the  immigrant  of  to-day.  As  a  rule  he  is  preju- 
diced, is  grossly  ignorant  of  the  historic  and 
religious  background  of  the  strangers  and  meets 
every  one  of  them  with  suspicion. 

At  a  recent  Summer  School  of  the  Y.  M.  C.  A. 
it  was  my  privilege  to  teach  a  class  of  young 
college  men  numbering  about  150.  They  were 
studying  this  problem,  and  the  questions  asked, 
a  few  of  which  I  quote,  prove  the  assertion  just 
made. 

"  Do  not  three  martyred  presidents  prove  that 
the  immigrant  is  an  Anarchist  and  ought  to  be 
excluded  ?  " 

"Is  it  not  true  that  ninety  per  cent,  of  the 
criminals  in  the  United  States  are  foreign 
bora?" 


THE  PROTESTANT  CHURCH       323 

"Do  not  foreign  governments  dump  their 
rubbish  of  criminals  and  paupers  upon  our 
shores  ?  " 

"  Is  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  safe 
in  the  hands  of  people  who  crucified  Jesus  ?  " 

"  Did  not  our  forefathers  come  to  fight  for 
liberty,  and  do  not  these  people  come  to  despoil 
us?" 

The  questions  asked  displayed  such  animosity 
and  such  ignorance,  that  to  print  them  all  would 
seem  like  slandering  our  Western  colleges  and  the 
churches  in  which  these  young  men  were  reared. 

The  churches  and  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.'s  have  no 
small  task  in  converting  their  membership  to 
some  Christian  view-point  of  these,  their  neigh- 
bours ;  even  if  they  cannot  be  converted  to  a 
spirit  of  brotherliness. 

The  following  instance,  while  not  typical, 
shows  the  attitude  of  Y.  M.  C.  A.  memberships 
in  many  industrial  communities,  towards  the 
immigrant.  An  Association  in  Pennsylvania 
wished  to  enlarge  its  building  and  solicited 
funds  in  the  shops  of  its  own  community.  Slav 
and  Hungarian  day  labourers  subscribed  $2,000, 
every  cent  of  which  was  paid  ;  which  cannot  be 
said  of  all  the  money  subscribed  by  Americans. 

Some  of  these  foreigners  were  anxious  to 
learn  English,  and  one  of  the  rooms  in  the 
building — not  the  best — was  opened  to  them 
and  a  teacher  procured.  When  one  of  these 


324  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

boys  used  some  of  the  public  conveniences  in 
the  building,  the  American  membership  notified 
the  secretary  that  the  "  Hunkies  "  must  not  be 
admitted  to  the  building ;  and  they  were  not,  in 
spite  of  the  fact  that  they  had  helped  pay  for  its 
erection. 

While  no  other  such  gross  injustice  has  come 
to  my  knowledge,  I  know  of  many  Y.  M.  C.  A.'s 
in  which  an  Armenian  or  Greek  would  be-  ex- 
cluded from  such  a  thoroughly  religious  privilege 
as  taking  a  bath. 

Wherever  a  church  or  Y.  M.  C.  A.  has 
shown  itself  hospitable  to  the  strangers  it  has 
had  as  many  of  their  souls  to  keep  as  it  has 
cared  to  have ;  but  most  of  them  prefer  to  save 
the  foreigner  by  "  absent  treatment." 

The  feeling  of  the  strangers  regarding  the 
efforts  which  the  churches  are  making  on  their 
behalf  in  so-called  missions,  which  are  often  re- 
pellently  unclean  and  devoid  of  any  saving 
grace,  is  explained  in  the  following  letter,  writ- 
ten by  a  graduate  of  Oberlin  Seminary,  a  young 
Pole,  whose  spirit  and  intelligence  the  letter 
itself  reveals. 

BRECKSVILLE,  OHIO,  OCTOBER  14,  1907. 
Prof.  E.  A.  Steincr,  Grinncll,  Iowa. 

MY  DEAR  DR.  STEINER  : — Your  plan  for  the  solution 
of  our  foreign  problem,  as  you  indicated  it  in  your  articles 
in  The  Congregationalist  of  last  year  and  as  you  outlined 
it  to  me  in  our  conversation  in  Cleveland  last  week,  is 


THE  PROTESTANT  CHURCH       325 

excellent ;  and  I  wish  to  tell  you  that  I  am  in  thorough 
sympathy  with  it.  My  own  personal  experience  in  the 
foreign  work  convinces  me  that  the  easiest,  most  eco- 
nomical, and  most  effective  way  of  solving  the  foreign 
problem  is  through  the  American  church  and  the  American 
worker  directly.  This  for  the  following  reasons :  First, 
mission  work  established  for  the  foreigner  strictly  in  his 
own  tongue  is  not  particularly  acceptable  to  him,  and  to 
some  it  is  even  offensive.  The  foreigner  regards  himself 
to  be  a  Christian,  and,  consequently,  resents  the  idea  of 
mission  work  done  distinctly  for  his  particular  benefit  in 
order  to  make  a  Christian  of  him.  Second,  a  worker  of 
his  own  nationality  is  looked  upon  by  him  with  suspicion. 
As  you  expressed  it,  he  is  regarded  a  traitor,  and  is  not 
to  be  trusted  too  much.  When  I  was  in  the  work,  I  had 
that  experience  over  and  over  again;  I  felt  that  my 
countrymen,  that  is,  a  good  many  of  them,  when  they 
found  out  that  I  was  a  Pole  and  not  a  Roman  Catholic, 
had  grave  doubts  as  to  whether  it  was  safe  for  them  to 
trust  me.  Third,  by  coming  to  the  mission,  the  foreigner 
feels  that  he  is  committing  himself  too  much  all  at  once — 
something  which  he  is  very  unwilling  to  do.  Then,  too, 
in  the  mission  he  is  too  conspicuous,  and  thus  too  much 
exposed  to  persecution  from  his  countrymen.  Fourth, 
our  greatest  hope  is,  not  in  the  grown-up  generation,  but 
in  the  growing  generation — the  children  and  the  young 
people ;  and  these  can  be  reached  more  easily  through  the 
American  church  than  through  a  mission  of  their  mother 
tongue,  because  they  want  to  be  regarded,  not  as  foreigners, 
but  as  Americans.  These  difficulties  would,  to  a  large 
extent,  be  obviated  if  we  tried  to  reach  the  foreigner 
directly  through  our  American  churches  and  other  re- 
ligious organizations  and  through  American  workers  ac- 


326  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

quainted  with  the  history  of  the  different  peoples,  their 
characteristics,  habits,  and  ways  of  thinking  and  looking 
at  things,  and  to  a  certain  extent  with  their  language  also, 
and  in  perfect  sympathy  with  them.  Of  course,  the  work 
done  at  present  by  the  mission  ought  not  to  be  dis- 
continued ;  it  has  its  place  and  its  value ;  but  it  ought  to 
be  supplemented  by  this  better  and,  as  I  believe,  more 
effective  method  which  you  have  in  mind  and  which  you 
propose  to  O'  r  churches  for  adoption. 

Sincerely  yours, 

PAUL  Fox. 

I  do  not  quote  this  letter  because  it  approves 
my  plan ;  for  I  do  not  hold  dogmatically  to  any 
one  method.  The  work  of  saving  men  is  desper- 
ately hard  and  there  are  a  thousand  ways  of 
doing  it. 

More  important  than  any  plan  is  a  right  atti- 
tude ;  for  in  all  human  contact  it  is  the  spirit 
within  the  man  or  institution  which  counts,  and 
not  the  precise  method  of  approach. 

Wherever  an  approach  has  been  made  in  the 
right  spirit  towards  the  foreigners,  they  have  re- 
sponded in  kind,  and  many  Protestant  churches 
have  been  enriched  by  their  presence,  by  the 
ardour  of  their  faith  and  their  willingness  to 
sacrifice  for  their  convictions. 

There  is,  as  I  have  said  before,  no  institution 
in  the  United  States  which  will  be  so  profoundly 
affected  by  the  immigrant  as  the  Protestant 
church.  Without  him  she  will  languish  and  die 
and  with  him  alone  she  has  a  future. 


THE  PROTESTANT  CHURCH       327 

Already  the  Roman  Catholic  proclaims  the 
conquest  of  America,  and  while  that  conquest 
is  not  complete,  it  soon  will  be,  unless  Protes- 
tantism wakens  to  the  wealth  of  its  heritage  and 
its  great  opportunity ;  unless  with  a  real  sym- 
pathy and  passion  it  teaches,  preaches  and 
practices  the  religion  of  Jesus. 

The  Protestant  church  need  not  rival  the 
Roman  Catholic  church  in  building  stately  places 
of  worship,  or  clothe  herself  in  gorgeous  vest- 
ments, or  read  ancient  liturgies. 

The  immigrant  comes  from  just  such  environ- 
ment, and  nothing  that  the  Protestant  church 
can  do  in  this  direction  will  be  as  beautiful  and 
as  impressive  as  that  which  he  has  left  behind. 

The  one  way  and  the  only  way  in  which  she 
can  enter  into  a  successful  rivalry  with  the 
ancient,  Apostolic  church,  is  in  reviving  the 
ancient,  Apostolic  passion  for  humanity. 

Having  quoted  so  many  letters,  I  may  perhaps 
be  pardoned  for  quoting  a  small  part  of  one 
written  long  ago,  at  a  time  when  the  church 
faced  a  crisis  not  unlike  the  one  which  she  faces 
to-day. 

"  If  there  is  therefore  any  comfort  in  Christ, 
if  any  consolation  of  love,  if  any  fellowship  of 
the  Spirit,  if  any  tender  mercies  and  compassions, 
fulfill  ye  my  joy,  that  ye  be  of  the  same  mind, 
having  the  same  love,  being  of  one  accord,  of 
one  mind ;  doing  nothing  through  factions, 


328  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

through  vainglory,  but  in  lowliness  of  mind  each 
counting  other  better  than  himself ;  not  looking 
each  of  you  to  his  own  things,  but  each  of  you 
also  to  the  things  of  others.  Have  this  mind  in 
you  which  was  also  in  Christ  Jesus  :  who,  being 
in  the  form  of  God,  counted  it  not  a  prize  to  be 
on  an  equality  with  God,  but  emptied  Himself, 
taking  the  form  of  a  servant,  being  made  in  the 
likeness  of  men  ;  and  being  found  in  fashion  as 
a  man,  He  humbled  Himself,  becoming  obedient 
even  unto  death,  yea,  the  death  of  the  cross. 
Wherefore  also  God  highly  exalted  Him,  and 
gave  unto  Him  the  name  which  is  above  every 
name  ;  that  in  the  name  of  Jesus,  every  knee 
should  bow,  of  things  in  heaven  and  things  on 
earth,  and  things  under  the  earth,  and  that  every 
tongue  should  confess  that  Jesus  Christ  is  Lord, 
to  the  glory  of  God  the  Father." 


XXIII 

TWENTY-FIVE  YEARS  WITH  THE 
NEW  IMMIGRANT 

IT  is  now  twenty-five  years  since  I  landed  in 
the  United  States  with  a  group  of  Slovaks 
from  the  district  of  Scharosh  in  Hungary. 

I  followed  them  across  the  sea  and  watched 
this  historic  movement  of  the  Slavs,  who  until 
then  had  remained  practically  dormant  where 
they  had  been  left  by  the  glacier-like  move- 
ment of  their  race,  the  pressure  of  the  invader 
or  the  fate  which  governed  Eastern  European 
politics. 

It  was  a  fascinating  experience  to  see  these 
forgotten  children  of  an  unresponsive  soil  coming 
in  touch  with  a  civilization  of  which  they  had 
never  dreamed  ;  to  see  the  struggle  of  emotions 
in  [their  usually  impassive  faces,  as  they  saw  the 
evidences  of  European  culture  and  wealth  in  the 
Northern  cities  through  which  we  passed. 

What  fear  crept  into  their  hearts  and  drove 
the  healthy  blood  from  their  cheeks  when  for 
the  first  time  they  saw  the  turbulent  sea. 

The  ocean  was  vaster  and  the  fear  of  it  most 
real  to  us  who  sailed  out  of  Bremerhaven  in  the 
steerage  of  the  steamer  Fulda ;  for  we  were  the 

329 


330  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

forerunners  of  a  vast  army  of  men  which  had 
scarcely  begun  to  think  of  leaving  its  age-long 
bivouac.  The  Slav  has  never  taken  kindly  to  the 
sea,  and  the  "  More  "  held  unconquered  terrors. 

It  is  difficult  now  to  describe  the  incidents  of 
that  first  landing  in  New  York,  for  in  rapid  suc- 
cession the  experience  has  been  so  often  re- 
peated ;  and  all  the  joys,  fears  and  hopes  which 
repeatedly  I  have  shared  with  hundreds  and 
thousands  of  men  are  so  blended  in  my  memory 
into  one  great  wonder,  that  either  analysis  or 
description  seems  vain. 

It  is  strange  and  yet  natural,  no  doubt,  that  I 
remember  the  trivial  incidents  of  that  first  landing. 
The  attempt  on  the  part  of  some  of  my  Slovaks 
to  eat  bananas  without  removing  the  skins ;  their 
first  acquaintance  with  mince  pie,  which  they 
declared  a  barbarous  dish ;  our  first  meal  on 
American  soil,  in  a  third  rate  boarding-house  for 
immigrants,  and  the  injunction  of  one  of  the 
earlier  comers :  "  Don't  wait  for  anybody,  but 
grab  all  you  can.  In  this  country  the  motto  is  : 
'  Happy  is  the  man  who  can  help  himself  1 ' ' 

I  remember  the  lonely  feeling  that  crept  over 
us  as  we  found  ourselves  like  driftwood  in  the 
great  current  of  humanity  in  the  city  of  New 
York,  and  the  fear  we  had  of  every  one  who  was 
at  all  friendly  ;  for  we  had  been  warned  against 
sharpers.  I  remember  our  pleasure  in  the  pictur- 
esque ferry-boat  which  carried  us  to  New  Jersey, 


WITH  THE  NEW  IMMIGRANT      331 

its  walking-beam  seeming  like  the  limbs  of  some 
great  monster  crossing  the  water. 

Then  crowding  fast  upon  one  another  come 
memories  of  hard  tasks  in  gruesome  mines  and 
ghostly  breakers ;  the  sight  of  licking  flames 
like  fiery  tongues  darting  out  at  us,  from  furnaces 
full  of  bubbling,  boiling  metal ;  the  circling  camps 
of  the  coke  burners  who  kept  their  night's  vigil 
by  the  altars  of  the  Fire  God. 

There  are  memories  of  dark  ravines  and  mud 
banks,  choked  by  refuse  of  mill  and  mine ;  the 
miners'  huts,  close  together,  as  if  space  were  as 
scarce  on  the  earth  as  compassion  for  the 
stranger. 

I  remember  the  kindness  of  the  poor,  the  hos- 
pitality of  the  crowded,  the  hostility  of  the  richer 
and  stronger,  who  feared  that  we  would  drive 
them  from  their  diggings ;  and  the  unbelief  of 
those  to  whom  I  early  began  preaching  the  hu- 
manity of  the  Slav — rough  and  uncouth,  but 
human  still,  although  he  has  scarcely  ever  had  a 
fair  chance  to  prove  it. 

Of  the  names  of  the  various  towns  through 
which  I  passed,  in  which  I  worked  and  watched, 
I  particularly  remember  four :  Connelsville, 
Scranton,  Wilkes-Barre,  Pa.,  and  Streator,  111., 
all  of  them  typical  coal  towns.  In  none  of  them 
were  my  people  received  with  open  arms,  al- 
though they  rarely  met  with  organized  hos- 
tility, 


332  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

In  Scranton  and  in  Streator,  they  still  remem- 
ber our  coming  and  our  staying.  Since  then,  I 
have  repeatedly  visited  all  these  four  places  upon 
errands  of  investigation  and  interpretation. 

I  always  dreaded  going  back  to  them ;  not  only 
because  it  would  revive  painful  memories  of  a  very 
hard  apprenticeship,  but  because  I  could  not 
avoid  asking  myself  if  the  optimism  with  which 
I  have  treated  the  problem  of  immigration,  by 
voice  and  pen,  would  be  justified. 

What  if  the  Americans  in  these  cities  should 
say:  "We  have  lived  with  these  Slavs  for  twenty- 
five  years  and  more ;  we  have  been  with  them 
day  after  day,  while  you  have  flitted  about  the 
country.  We  know  better  than  you  do.  We 
told  you  the  '  Hunkey '  was  a  menace  when  he 
came,  and  he  is  a  menace  still." 

I  well  know  that  my  readers  and  my  auditors 
have  often  criticised  my  optimism,  and  especially 
the  sympathetic  note  with  which  I  approach  this 
problem,  regarding  which  they  are  always  more 
skeptical  the  more  remote  they  are  from  it 

I  have  tried  to  modify  my  view  of  the  problem 
by  facing  it  in  all  its  bearings  ;  I  have  not  shrunk 
from  seeing  the  worst  of  it  In  fact  I  know 
American  cities  best  from  that  dark  and  clouded 
side.  I  know  the  Little  Italics,  the  Ghettos,  the 
Patches  around  the  mines,  the  East  Side  of  New 
York  and  the  West  Side  of  Chicago ;  although 
I  have  never  been  the  full  length  of  Fifth  Avenue 


WITH  THE  NEW  IMMIGRANT      333 

and  have  never  seen  the  famous  North  Shore 
drive. 

I  am  familiar  with  penitentiaries,  jails,  police 
courts  and  even  worse  places  ;  for  I  wanted  to 
know  to  what  depths  these  leaden  souls  can  sink, 
and  I  fear  that  I  have  more  anxiety  as  to  their 
nativity  than  their  destiny.  Yet,  having  seen 
the  worst  of  the  bad,  I  never  lost  my  faith  in 
these  lesser  folk  and  my  optimism  remained  un- 
clouded. One  fear  alone  assailed  me;  that 
what  my  critics  said  to  me  and  of  me  was 
true.  "  He  is  an  immigrant  himself,  and  of 
course  it  is  natural  that  he  should  see  the  brighter 
side  of  the  problem."  To  me,  that  was  the  se- 
verest and  most  cutting  criticism,  just  because  I 
feared  it  might  be  true ;  yet  I  have  honestly  tried 
to  see  the  darkest  side  of  this  question,  both  as 
it  affected  the  immigrant  and  the  country  that 
received  him. 

I  have  listened  patiently  to  jeremiads  of  home 
mission  secretaries  about  these  "  Godless  foreign- 
ers." I  have  read  the  reports  of  Immigrant  Com- 
missions, and  all  the  literature  written  the  last  few 
years  upon  this  subject,  and  I  am  still  optimistic, 
and  disagree  with  much  that  I  have  heard  and 
read.  Many  authors  who  have  written  regard- 
ing this  question  had  no  first-hand  information 
about  it.  They  knew  neither  the  speech  nor  the 
genius  of  these  new  people ;  they  had  a  fixed  be- 
lief that  all  civilization,  culture  and  virtue,  belong 


334  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

to  the  north  of  Europe  and  that  the  east  and 
southeast  of  that  continent  are  its  limbo ;  and  they 
relied  upon  statistics,  which  at  best  are  mislead- 
ing, when  used  to  estimate  human  conduct  and 
human  influences. 

Typical  of  this  class  of  literature  is  a  recent 
pamphlet  upon  the  subject,  which,  judging  from 
the  excellent  biography  appended,  must  be  based 
upon  extensive  reading  ;  yet  the  author  comes  to 
this  conclusion  :  "  Assimilation  in  the  twentieth 
century  is  a  very  different  matter  from  assimila- 
tion in  the  nineteenth.  In  many  respects,  the 
new  immigration  is  as  bad  as  the  old  was  good."  l 

There  are  several  facts  which  this  author  has 
forgotten,  as  have  those  from  whom  he  draws. 
First,  the  older  immigrant  is  not  yet  assimilated. 
In  the  agricultural  counties  of  Mr.  Edwards'  own 
state,  there  are  townships  in  which  the  English 
language  is  a  foreign  tongue,  although  the  sec- 
ond generation  of  Germans  already  plows  the 
fertile  fields  of  Wisconsin ;  and  there  are  cities 
where  the  Germans  have  thoroughly  assimilated 
the  Americans. 

There  are  places  of  no  mean  size  in  Pennsyl- 
vania, which  are  as  German  as  they  were  200 
years  ago,  and  as  far  as  the  Irish  everywhere  are 
concerned,  it  is  still  a  question  what  we  shall  be 
when  they  have  done  with  us. 

'"Studies  on  American  Social  Conditions.  Immigration."  By 
Richard  Henry  Edwards,  p.  9. 


WITH  THE  NEW  IMMIGRANT      335 

I  venture  to  predict  that  the  twentieth  century 
immigrant  will  assimilate  much  more  quickly 
and  completely  than  the  immigrants  of  the  eight- 
eenth and  the  early  half  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
turies assimilated. 

Beside  the  fact  that  the  process  is  going  on 
much  more  rapidly  than  ever  before,  as  I  as- 
serted, my  theories  are  corroborated  by  Pro- 
fessor Ross,  of  the  University  of  Wisconsin,  whose 
book  is  suggestive  if  not  conclusive.  Speaking 
of  the  assimilation  of  the  immigrant,  he  says  : 

"  On  the  whole,  those  who  come  now  Amer- 
icanize much  more  readily  than  did  the  non-Eng- 
lish immigrants  of  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth 
centuries.  Not  only  do  they  come  from  lesser 
peoples  and  from  humbler  social  strata,  but, 
thanks  to  the  great  r61e  the  United  States  plays 
in  the  world,  the  American  culture  meets  with  far 
more  prestige  than  it  had  then.  Although  we 
have  ever  greater  masses  to  assimilate,  let  us 
comfort  ourselves  with  the  fact  that  the  vortical 
suction  of  our  civilization  is  stronger  now  than 
ever  before." l 

Neither  is  any  one  prepared  to  prove  that  the 
"  new  irrfmigrant  is  as  bad  as  the  old  was  good." 

It  is  very  interesting  that  when  authors  and 
speakers  quote  statistics,  as  they  usually  do,  to 
prove  the  criminal  nature  of  the  new  immigrant, 
they  do  not  differentiate  between  the  older  and 

1 "  Social  Psychology,"  Ross,  p.  140. 


336  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

the  newer  groups.  If  they  did,  and  would  let 
statistics  determine  the  issue,  they  would  find 
that  the  new  immigrant  is  good  and  the  old  bad  ; 
yes,  very  bad. 

The  following  tables,  quoted  from  the  Report 
of  the  Commission  of  Immigration  of  the  State 
of  New  York,  are  worthy  the  close  study  of  Mr. 
Edwards  and  the  authors  upon  whom  he  has  re- 
lied.1 


STATISTICS  REFERRING  TO  FOREIGN-BORN  OFFENDERS  COM- 
MITTED TO  NEW  YORK  STATE  PRISONS  AND  PENITENTIA- 
RIES DURING  1904. 

Total  Number  of  Prisoners  Committed 


( 
Aeerreeatc  . 

Major 
Offenses. 
•1,670 

Minor 
Offenses. 
26,136 

Total. 

2Q.8IC 

Total  white   

It  34  5 

24,969 

28,314 

2,266 

i6,7;g 

IQ.O2C 

Native  white  of  native  parentage    . 
Native  white  of  foreign  parentage  . 
Native  white  of  mixed  parentage  . 
Native  white  of  unknown  parentage 
Foreign-born  whites  
Whites  of  unknown   nativity  .    .    . 
Negroes                       

1,223 

732 
263 
48 
1,075 

4 
730 

10,266 
4,500 

i.5°5 
488 
8,158 

S2 
1,119 

11,489 

5.232 
1,768 

536 
9,233 
56 

1,469 

Mongolians     

i 

I 

Indians  . 

4 

27 

31 

1  Report  of  Commission  of  Immigration  of  the  State  of  New  York, 
pp.  182  a  ad  185. 


WITH  THE  NEW  IMMIGRANT      337 

Foreign-Born  White  Offenders  by  Nativity 

Major  Per  Minor  Per 

Offenses,      cent  Offenses,  cent. 

Austria 48  4.5  259  3.2 

Canada 68  6.3  435  5.3 

Denmark      5  0.5  28  0.3 

England   and  Wales  .    .          67  6.2  655  8.1 

France      19  1.8  119  1.4 

Germany 212  19.7  1,136  13.9 

Hungary 15  1.4  83  l.o 

Ireland 148  13.7  3,569  43.9 

Italy 255  23.7  601  7.3 

Mexico ...  6  o.i 

Norway 7  0.7  46  0.5 

Poland 30  2.8  232  2.8 

Russia 119  11.0  392  4.9 

Scotland 17  1.6  220  2.7 

Sweden 14  1.3  163  2.0 

Switzerland      4  0.4  43  0.5 

Other  countries    ....          47  4.4  171  2.1 

Totals 1,075          loo.o        8,158         100.0 

PAUPERS  ADMITTED  TO  ALMSHOUSES  IN  NEW  YORK  STATE 
DURING  YEAR  1904,  BY  NATIVITY  AND  LENGTH  OF  RESI- 
DENCE IN  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

All  paupers  admitted 10,272 

Per  cent,  of  white  paupers  admitted  : 

Native 44.0  per  cent 

Foreign-born 56.0  per  cent 

Foreign-Born   White  Paupers  Admitted  in  1904, 

by  Nativity 
Country  of  Birth  Per  cent        Per  cent 

Ireland 54.3 

Germany 18.7 

England  and  Wales 6.4 

Canada  (including  Newfoundland)  .  4.3 

Scandinavia      2.0 

France 0.9 

Scotland 2.0 

88.6 

Italy 3.5 

Hungary  and  Bohemia 0.6 

Russia  and  Poland 3.3 

Unknown 4.0 

11.4 


Grand  total 100.0 


338  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

What  is  more  striking  still  is  the  following 
table  which  seems  to  prove  that  the  new  im- 
migrant does  not  increase  his  percentage  in  the 
criminal  column  materially,  in  fact  that  there  is 
a  slight  tendency  to  decrease  it1 

Foreign- Born  Offenders  According  to  Years  of 
Residence  in  the  United  States 


Years 
Under  one  year  .   .    . 

Major 
Offenses. 
36 

Per 
cent. 

•1.7 

Minor     Per 
Offenses,  cent. 
86          i.o 

One  year     

7Q 

7-2 

229          2.8 

63 

c.8 

207              7.6 

Three  years    .... 

•    •    •           52 

<* 

28"?              7.4 

Four  years  

.  .        40 

7.6 

177             2.2 

Over  four  years  .    .    . 

.  .  .     824 

7.147          87.0 

Totals 1,094      loo.o       8,217       100.0 

I  am  not  trying  to  prove  that  the  old  immigra- 
tion was  worse  than  the  new ;  I  do  not  believe 
that  these  statistics  prove  it,  in  spite  of  their  ap- 
pearing to.  But  they  do  prove  conclusively  that 
statistics  of  this  kind  are  absolutely  unreliable  in 
furnishing  tests  of  the  moral  fiber  of  this  or  that 
group. 

Far  more  reliable  is  the  verdict  of  various 
communities  after  twenty-five  years'  experience 
with  the  newer  immigrant 

Take  for  example  the  city  of  Streator,  111., 
which  has  steadily  grown  in  size  and  in  the 
number  and  variety  of  its  industrial  establish- 

1  Report  of  Commission  of  Immigration  of  the  State  of  New  York, 
p.  183. 


WITH  THE  NEW  IMMIGRANT      339 

ments ;  a  development  which  could  not  have 
taken  place  without  the  new  immigrant.  There 
are  certain  unprofitable  seams  in  the  mines 
which  the  English-speaking  miners  would  not 
have  worked ;  even  as  there  are  less  profitable 
veins  which  the  Slav  does  not  care  to  touch  and 
which  are  being  worked  by  Sicilians,  new  upon 
the  scene. 

It  is  true  that  out  of  the  500  Welsh  miners 
there  are  only  about  fifty  left ;  but  the  450  were 
pushed  up  and  not  out  and  are  in  no  position  to 
complain.  They  have  moved  on  to  farms  and 
have  grown  prosperous  while  some  of  the  most 
lucrative  business  in  the  city  is  theirs. 

It  does  seem  a  great  pity  that  a  skilled  trade 
like  mining  should  have  passed  into  the  hands 
of  unskilled  labourers ;  but  for  this,  the  invention 
of  machinery  is  to  blame,  and  not  the  foreigner. 
Had  comparatively  cheap  labour  been  unavail- 
able, the  genius  of  the  American  would  not  have 
stopped  until  he  had  all  but  eliminated  the  human 
element,  as  he  has  done  in  many  other  trades  in 
which  unskilled  foreign  labour  is  not  a  factor. 

Twenty-five  years  ago  I  "squatted"  near 
mine  No.  3  with  my  men  from  Scharosh.  It  was 
as  wretched  a  patch  as  miners'  patches  always 
are.  We  bunked  twenty  in  a  room  and  took  as 
good  care  of  our  bodies  as  conditions  permitted  ; 
so  that  when  we  went  down-town  we  were  cleanly 
if  not  stylish. 


340  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

My  men  soon  learned  to  drink  whiskey  like 
the  Irish,  swear  like  the  English  and  dress  like 
the  Americans. 

After  twenty-five  years  the  patches  around  the 
mines  in  Streator  are  practically  gone,  and  the 
homes  there  are  as  good  as  the  Welsh  or  Eng- 
lish miners  ever  had.  Some  of  the  newer  ad- 
ditions in  that  growing  city  are  occupied  entirely 
by  Slavs  and  do  them  credit. 

Nor  has  the  Slav  been  content  to  remain  in 
the  mines  ;  he,  too,  has  begun  to  move  out  and 
up.  He  owns  saloons  and  sightly  stores  in 
which  his  sons  and  daughters  clerk,  and  it  would 
take  a  very  keen  student  of  race  characteristics 
to  distinguish  the  Slavs  from  the  native  Ameri- 
cans. 

"  Do  you  see  that  young  man  at  the  entrance 
to  the  Chautauqua?"  said  Mr.  Williams,  its 
public  spirited  secretary. 

"  Racially,  his  father  is  as  sharply  marked  a 
man  as  I  have  ever  seen,  and  the  son,  a  graduate 
of  Harvard,  looks  as  if  his  forefathers  had  all 
grown  up  in  the  salt  air  of  the  New  England 
coast" 

Here  in  Streator  were  the  people  who  have 
lived  with  the  new  immigrant  a  quarter  of  a 
century  and  more,  and  I  have  spoken  to  them 
three  times,  in  my  most  optimistic  vein  ;  many  a 
man  and  woman  has  said  : 

"  You  are  right,  they  make  splendid  citizens." 


WITH  THE  NEW  IMMIGRANT      341 

"  They  are  good  neighbours." 

"  They  are  as  human  as  we  are,  and  they  are 
proving  it." 

This,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  in  Streator  as 
in  Connelsville  and  in  hundreds  of  industrial 
towns,  they  have  been  met  with  suspicion  and 
have  been  treated  with  injustice. 

"They  are  a  great  strain  upon  our  political 
institutions,"  said  Mr.  Williams,  himself  once  a 
Welsh  miner,  pushed  out  of  the  mine  by  the 
Slav  and  now  one  of  the  leading  citizens  of 
Streator. 

But  Mr.  Williams  knows  that  the  year  I  lived 
in  Streator,  when  the  Slav  had  no  vote  or  in- 
fluence, politics  in  that  city  were  already  corrupt 
and  that  the  corrupters  were  native  Americans, 
whose  ancestors  harked  back  to  the  Mayflower, 
and  who  were  rewarded  for  their  corruption  by 
high  political  offices.  In  truth,  when  the  Slav 
came  to  this  country,  there  was  nothing  left  to 
corrupt,  in  Scranton  or  Wilkes-Barre,  in  Con- 
nelsville or  Streator  ;  or,  indeed,  in  all  Pennsyl- 
vania and  Illinois.  The  Slav  now  has  some 
political  power ;  but  as  yet  he  has  not  produced 
the  "  grafter."  I  do  not  say  that  he  will  not ; 
but  when  he  does,  small  blame  to  him. 

In  one  of  the  four  cities  which  I  have  men- 
tioned, I  shared  with  a  group  of  Poles  the  vicissi- 
tudes of  the  first  few  weeks  in  a  boarding-house, 
a  combination  of  saloon  f»ncJ  hotel,  common  in 


342  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

Pennsylvania,  and  usually  offering  more  bar 
than  board. 

One  evening  an  American  came  among  us ;  a 
splendid  type  of  agile  manhood.  When  my  men 
saw  him,  they  said :  "  This  is  a  prince ! "  They 
did  not  know  that  he  was  a  politician.  He  shook 
hands  with  every  one  of  us,  and  I  said  to  the 
men :  "  This  is  democracy  I "  Poor  fool  1  I 
did  not  know  that  it  was  the  day  before  election. 

Then  he  marched  the  men  to  the  bar,  and  said 
to  the  barkeeper :  "  Fill  'em  up."  And  as  they 
drank  the  fiery  stuff,  no  doubt  they  thought  they 
were  in  Heaven,  and  forgot  that  they  were  in 
Pennsylvania.  When  the  whiskey  took  effect, 
they  were  marched  into  a  large  hall,  where  other 
Poles,  drunk  as  they,  were  congregated ;  speeches 
were  made,  full  of  the  twaddle  of  political  jargon 
which  they  did  not  understand,  and  when  morn- 
ing came,  these  Poles,  so  intoxicated  that  they 
did  not  know  whether  they  were  North  Poles  or 
South  Poles,  were  marched  to  the  voting-place 
and  sworn  in. 

I  have  told  this  story  in  each  of  the  four  places 
referred  to,  and  in  the  place  where  it  occurred,  a 
judge,  who  was  among  my  audience,  said  to  me : 
"  Don't  tell  that  story  again." 

"  Why  not?     It  is  true,"  I  replied. 

"  Yes,"  he  said,  "  it  is  perfectly  true ;  but  you'd 
better  save  ypur  strength.  In  this  city,  not  only 
the  foreigners,  who  are  not  citizens,  vote  ;  but  the 


WITH  THE  NEW  IMMIGRANT      343 

dead  vote,  long  after  they  have  become  citizens 
of  Kingdom  Come." 

One  of  these  same  Poles  recently  took  me 
through  the  Gapitol  of  Pennsylvania  at  Harris- 
burg.  With  great  pride  he  guided  me  from 
foundation  to  dome,  pointing  out  those  objects 
of  interest  which  every  stranger  must  see,  as  if 
they  were  the  memorials  of  noble  deeds  of  valour. 

They  consist  of  wood,  painted  to  imitate  mar- 
ble, chandeliers  of  base  metal,  to  be  sold  by  the 
pound,  at  fabulous  prices,  and  among  many 
other  ppurious  things,  a  safe,  supposed  to  be  fire- 
proof and  burglar-proof,  but  which  was  not  poli- 
tician-proof, for  an  ordinary  gimlet  bored  a  hole 
into  its  corrupt  heart. 

What  was  distressing  to  me  was  not  so  much 
that  the  State  paid  millions  for  this  veneered  and 
varnished  fraud,  but  that  my  Polish  guide  pro- 
nounced the  word  graft  with  evident  relish  and 
without  fear  or  shame. 

I  do  not  doubt  that  the  presence  of  the  new 
immigrant  is  "  a  great  strain  upon  our  political 
institutions " ;  but  not  greater  than  the  old  im- 
migrant was,  and  still  is.  This  certainly  is  true 
of  Pennsylvania ;  for  there  are  counties  in  that 
state,  into  whose  wilds  the  new  immigrant  has 
not  yet  penetrated,  and  where  those  who  have 
been  living  off  its  fat  acres  since  their  birth — the 
sons  of  immigrants  who  came  200  years  ago— 
hold  their  right  of  franchise  cheap.  I  am  told 


344  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

that  in  these  counties  nearly  every  vote  can  be 
bought  for  five  dollars. 

This  may  be  idle  rumour ;  but  the  fact  remains 
and  can  be  proved  by  any  one  who  chooses  to 
investigate,  that  Scranton,  Wilkes-Barre,  Con- 
nelsville  and  a  hundred  other  cities  and  towns, 
are  better  governed  now  than  they  were  before 
Slav,  Latin  and  Jew  came  to  live  in  their  Patches 
and  Ghettos.  This  is  true  in  spite  of  our  having 
tried  to  corrupt  these  new  citizens  from  the  very 
hour  when  they  received  their  political  rights, 
and  that  when  they  had  no  rights,  we  treated 
them  with  neglect  and  scorn. 

The  mayor  of  Greensburg,  Pa.,  a  man  of  the 
newer  and  better  type  of  administrators,  whose 
territory  is  completely  environed  by  the  coke 
regions  and  has  an  almost  totally  foreign  popu- 
lation— says : 

"They  make  reliable  citizens.  They  can  be 
trusted  absolutely.  Their  worst  enemy  is  drink ; 
but  when  a  foreigner  comes  before  me  and  is 
fined,  if  he  has  no  money  and  I  let  him  go  home, 
he  will  come  the  next  day  to  pay  his  fine  even  if 
he  lives  ten  miles  from  town.  Yet  in  spite  of  the 
fact  that  the  '  Hunkey '  and  the  '  Dago '  have 
helped  build  up  Greensburg,  and  have  enriched 
its  citizens,  they  are  still  held  in  contempt  by  the 
majority  of  its  people  " 

This  same  official  told  me  that  a  few  year&  ago 
when  the  Italians  celebrated  their  Independence 


WITH  THE  NEW  IMMIGRANT      345 

Day,  the  High  School  boys  of  that  city  threw  de- 
cayed vegetables  at  them  and  their  national  flag. 

Without  the  slightest  reserve  I  can  say  this : 
Wherever  an  enlightened  official,  like  this  mayor, 
or  teachers  of  the  public  schools,  ministers  of  the 
Gospel  and  business  men,  have  come  in  real  con- 
tact with  the  new  immigrant,  their  verdict  was 
entirely  different  from  that  of  Mr.  Edwards  and 
many  of  the  professional  writers  upon  the  prob- 
lem which  the  foreigner  represents. 

There  are  some  places  in  the  United  States 
where  I  have  found  the  immigrant  a  menace, 
and  one  of  them  is  in  Pittston,  Pa.  There  the 
Italian  is  really  bad ;  there  he  is  an  Anarchist 
and  a  murderer.  But  in  Pittston  I  discovered 
the  really  bad  American,  an  Anarchist  and  a 
murderer ;  although  he  may  be  the  owner  of  some 
of  the  mines  or  a  high  official  in  the  town.  In 
that  city,  every  law  which  governs  mining  has 
been  openly  violated,  and  there  is  at  least  one 
mine  in  the  place  which  is  nothing  but  a  deep 
hell-hole  and  is  known  as  such  by  the  men  com- 
pelled to  work  in  it.  It  is  a  mine  in  which  any- 
thing may  be  had  for  a  bribe  and  anything  may 
be  done  without  fear  of  punishment.  In  one  of 
the  last  communal  elections,  the  candidate  for  its 
highest  office  kept  open  house,  with  beer  and 
"  booze "  in  one  of  the  miners'  shacks ;  young 
boys,  not  out  of  their  teens,  were  allowed  to  drink 
to  intoxication,  and  the  candidate  already  men- 


346  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

tioned  was  not  an  Italian  or  a  Slav  or  a  Jew ; 
but  an  American,  unto  the  tenth  generation  and 
a  member  of  a  Protestant  church. 

I  do  not  rejoice  in  writing  this  or  in  telling  it 
as  I  have  had  to  tell  it  in  the  towns  affected,  and 
to  the  very  men  who  have  thus  offended. 

It  is  painful  to  me,  because,  after  all,  I  do  not 
feel  myself  so  closely  identified  with  the  immi- 
grant as  with  the  American.  While  my  sympa 
thies  are  with  the  immigrant,  they  are  much 
more  with  this,  my  country,  and  with  that  circle 
of  the  native  born,  whose  ideals,  whose  hopes 
and  whose  aspirations  have  become  mine. 

I  am  not  greatly  concerned  with  immigration, 
per  se ;  that  is  a  subject  for  the  economist,  which 
I  am  not.  It  is  for  him,  if  he  is  skilled  enough, 
to  know  whether  we  can  afford  to  keep  our  gates 
open  to  the  millions  who  come,  or  when  and  to 
whom  to  close  them. 

Narrowly,  or  perhaps  selfishly,  I  am  concerned 
for  those  who  are  here ;  that  they  be  treated 
justly,  with  due  appreciation  of  their  worth,  and 
that  they  may  see  that  best  in  the  American 
which  has  bound  me  to  him,  to  his  land  and  to 
its  history ;  to  its  best  men  living,  and  to  those 
of  its  dead  who  left  a  great  legacy,  too  great  to 
be  squandered  by  a  prodigal  generation. 

Knowing  how  great  this  legacy  is,  and  yet 
may  be  for  the  blessing  of  mankind,  I  am  plead- 
ing for  this  new  immigrant.  If  we  care  at  all 


WITH  THE  NEW  IMMIGRANT      347 

for  that  struggling,  striving  mass  of  men,  un- 
blessed as  yet  by  those  gifts  of  Heaven  which 
have  blessed  us,  let  us  prove  to  these  people  of 
all  kindreds  and  races  and  nations,  that  our  God 
is  the  Lord,  that  His  law  is  our  law  and  that  all 
men  are  our  brothers. 


XXIV 

FROM  CHAOS  TO  COSMOS 

WHILE  passing  through  a  pleasure 
park  in  one  of  the  European  capitals 
I  met,  quite  by  accident,  my  fellow 
passenger  on  the  Italian  steamer,  the  Puritan 
rebel ;  she  who  smoked  cigarettes,  drank  cock- 
tails, was  divorced  and  had  gone  to  the  Old 
World  in  search  of  a  more  congenial  moral  at- 
mosphere and  a  husband  with  braid  and  but- 
tons. Now  she  was  drinking  the  cup  of  unre- 
strained pleasure,  and  having  nearly  drained  it, 
it  was  beginning  to  taste  bitter.  Officers  and 
attaches,  Grand  Opera,  frivolous  plays  and 
care-free  crowds,  were  beginning  to  pall  upon 
her  and  she  was  unmistakably  homesick ;  al- 
though she  did  not  confess  to  that  last  fact. 

"  I  suppose,"  she  said,  "  you  can't  get  rid  of 
Puritanism,  when  once  it  gets  into  your  blood. 
It's  an  hereditary  disease." 

"  And  it  is  contagious,"  I  added. 

"I  thought,"  she  continued,  "that  at  home  we 
were  small  and  narrow  and  that  over  here  I 
should  find  a  larger  freedom ;  but  you  can't 
turn  around  here,  without  finding  the  bars  up— 


FROM  CHAOS  TO  COSMOS        349 

racially,  religiously,  socially  and  politically. 
The  only  unobstructed  passage  is  the  way  to 
Hell." 

Hers  were  large,  black,  dreamy  eyes  and  the 
shadows  of  disappointment  passed  over  them. 
Then,  to  shake  off  the  gripping  seriousness  from 
her  mood,  she  said,  with  a  forced  smile :  "  I  am 
going  to  see  the  Merry  Widow  to-night  with  my 
Captain.  They  are  both  inane.  Meeting  you 
has  made  me  blue,  I  fear  ;  you  remind  me  of  my 
father." 

She  said  this  reproachfully,  I  thought ;  al- 
though she  added :  "  Let  us  sit  down  and  talk 
things  over.  My  daughter  and  the  maid  are 
listening  to  the  music  and  I  have  nothing  to  do 
until  my  Captain  comes  to  meet  me." 

"  Now  please  listen  to  me,"  I  said  when  we 
were  seated.  "  I  was  born  over  here,  right  in 
this  city.  My  playground  was  this  very  park. 
I  have  tasted  the  best  this  city  can  offer  a  boy, 
as  well  as  its  worst. 

"  Listen,"  I  said  again  ;  for  her  eyes  wandered 
to  the  gay  crowds.  "  I  also  know  your  home 
city,  and  I  wouldn't  give  one  block  in  Hartford, 
Conn.,  not  speaking  from  the  commercial  stand- 
point, for  this  whole  magnificent  city,  with  its 
Cathedral,  its  Grand  Opera,  its  royal  castle,  its 
officers  and  its  Merry  Widow.  Do  you  ask 
why  ?  Just  watch  this  crowd  and  let  me  inter- 
pret it  to  you.  Those  boys  now  passing  are 


350  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

Bohemians,  apprentices;  and  they  are  talking 
Czechish  to  make  themselves  obnoxious  to  the 
Germans  whom  they  hate  and  who  hate  them, 
more  than  your  forefathers  hated  the  devil. 

"  Do  you  see  that  Bosnian  ?  Notice  his  smile 
as  he  sells  a  jack-knife  to  the  Austrian  soldier. 
His  smile  would  be  more  genuine  if  he  could 
knife  this  detested  'Schwab,'  his  enemy  and  the 
conquerer  of  his  country. 

"Those  men  with  the  needle-pointed  mous- 
taches are  Magyars,  and  they  hate  the  Slavs  and 
Germans  and  every  one  else  who  will  not  speak 
their  language. 

"The  officers  with  the  red  fez  are  Turks,  as 
you  know ;  just  now  they  despise  everything 
Austrian,  and  not  without  reason. 

"  The  picturesque  nurse  maids,  wheeling  the 
babies,  do  not  have  those  soldiers  with  them  to 
protect  Austria's  '  infant  industries '  ;  they  are 
Slovaks,  aliens  of  the  aliens,  and  the  unpro- 
tected prey  of  the  soldiers.  The  Jews  here  add 
to  the  chaos ;  for  all  these  races  hate  them  and 
they  reciprocate  in  kind." 

"  We  have  all  these  people  in  Hartford  1 
What  of  it  ?  "  My  companion  impatiently  inter- 
rupted my  explanations. 

"  This,"  I  replied.  "  These  people  have  lived 
for  many  hundreds  of  years,  in  chaos  and  con- 
fusion. Each  in  his  little  world,  hemmed  in  by 
the  pride  of  his  race  or  the  hate  of  other  people. 


FROM  CHAOS  TO  COSMOS        351 

Each  day  the  barriers  grow  taller  and  the  hate 
grows  stronger. 

"  I  lived  in  it  for  a  good  many  years,  and  it  is 
an  awfully  little  world  one  is  locked  into ;  yet 
it  is  as  big  and  terrible  as  Hell.  That  being 
branded  by  the  marks  of  your  race,  by  the 
speech  your  ancestors  have  bequeathed  you,  by 
your  blood  or  your  religion,  and  isolated  as  if 
you  were  a  leper,  while  your  heart  yearns  for 
the  larger  fellowships — all  that  I  have  felt  from 
my  youth." 

"  Haven't  you  felt  it  in  America,  too  ?  " 

"Yes ;  but  with  a  difference,  a  tremendous  differ- 
ence. There  they  may  shut  one  from  the  social 
contact,  but  there  remain  the  public  schools,  the 
libraries,  the  churches  and  settlements.  And 
what  schools  you  have  in  Hartford  1  I  have 
been  in  schoolrooms  there,  in  the  first  grade, 
where  90%  of  the  children  were  of  alien  birth, 
and  at  a  glance  I  knew  their  nationality. 

"  Italians,  miniature  old  men  and  women, 
although  scarcely  seven  years  of  age. 

"  Serious,  little  black-eyed  Jews,  with  the 
burden  of  ages  upon  their  bent  backs. 

"  Polish  boys  and  girls,  with  small  foreheads, 
as  if  some  tyrant  had  trampled  upon  theu 
heads. 

"Armenians,  sad-looking,  dark-skinned  crea* 
tures,  haunted  by  the  remembrance  of  theii 
village  street,  red  from  the  blood  of  the  slain. 


352  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

"  Syrian  children,  out  of  the  very  village  in 
whose  meadows  the  angels  sang  when  Christ 
was  born  ;  but  who  have  never  known  either 
peace  or  good  will. 

"  I  went  to  the  second  and  third  grades,  and 
there  it  seemed  as  if  the  hand  of  a  good  angel 
had  already  passed  over  those  marked  and  marred 
faces ;  I  could  almost  hear  the  voice  of  the  All- 
Father  saying : 

"  '  I  will  blot  out  the  transgressions  which  have 
been  transgressed  against  you.' 

"They  looked  like  children  who  were  be- 
ginning to  live  the  real  life  of  the  child  in  a 
really  human  world,  and  were  having  a  chance 
to  grow  into  the  human  likeness. 

"  I  have  been  to  your  High  School,  and  there 
the  marks  were  all  but  obliterated ;  there  was 
'  neither  Jew  nor  Greek,  neither  Roman  nor  Bar- 
barian ' ;  they  were  all  a  new  people." 

Now,  my  Puritan  rebel  was  listening  attentively 
enough  ;  so  I  continued  :  "  In  America,  some- 
thing happens  which  cannot  happe^  ^ere.  Over 
there,  the  fiber,  the  tissue,  thav  mysterious 
fluid  which  we  call  life  or  soul,  the  very  nerve 
cells  change,  under  the  benign  influences  of  the 
heritage  left  by  your  fathers ;  that  heritage 
which  you  despise — you  " — I  repeated,  and  I 
said  it  angrily  ;  "  you,  who  expatriate  yourself  for 
the  sheen  of  braid  and  buttons,  for  Grand  Opera 
and  Viennese  waltzes  1  You  expatriate  your- 


55 

W 
~ 
O 


2  st? 


O  -KJ2 
5  £*j> 

u   E" 
• 


0) 
Bl    VA 

E*4 
i 

s  ° 

H>i 
*<« 


S3 


H  'C 
O 

X   . 


FROM  CHAOS  TO  COSMOS        353 

self  from  a  country  where  there  is  more  idealism 
to  the  square  inch  than  in  all  this  country,  in 
spite  of  its  statuary,  its  music  and  its  aristoc- 
racy. 

"  I'd  rather  live  in  Connecticut,  the  wife  of  a 
humble  artisan,  than  here,  the  'consort'  of  a 
Count  or  Duke." 

"  You  talk  exactly  like  my  father,"  she  repeated. 

"Do  I?  I'm  glad  of  it.  I  told  you  that 
Puritanism  is  contagious.  Maybe  I  caught  it 
from  your  father,  and  if  I  were  sure  that  I 
have  caught  it,  I  would  be  sure  of  more  moral 
fiber  than  you  will  get  here,  if  you  stay  a  hun- 
dred years. 

"  That  Puritanism  which  you  despise  will 
make  cosmos  out  of  chaos ;  for  in  spite  of  its 
narrowness,  there  is  in  it  the  passion  for  human- 
ity. It  cries  for  justice,  for  freedom,  for  equality, 
even  if  it  too  often  burdens  itself  with  theo- 
logical dogmas  hard  to  understand  and  harder 
to  believe. 

"  After  all,  the  best  thing  in  your  country  is, 
not  that  you  give  the  weaker  a  chance  to  grow 
strong,  and  the  broken  the  blessing  of  healing 
— the  best  of  it  is,  that  those  of  us  who  are  just 
what  we  are,  have  a  chance  to  help  in  the  doing. 
It's  the  work  that  a  man  or  woman  can  do  over 
there  that  counts. 

"  Yes,  go  back,  crawl  back,  if  necessary,  to 
sober  Connecticut ;  to  its  pure  women  and  its 


354  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

undemonstrative  men,  who  do  not  make  mean- 
ingless compliments,  after  the  fashion  .of  your 
Captain  ;  but  who  will  at  least  think  no  evil  of 
you  and  who  will  treat  you  with  real  courtesy, 
when  there  is  need  of  courteous  action. 

"  You  want  art  ?  You  fear  you  will  miss  it  ? 
They  are  doing  something  worth  while  at  home, 
in  bronze  and  marble  ;  but  they  are  doing  more 
wonderful  things  in  human  flesh  and  spirit. 

"  I  have  seen  wretched  Italian  children  who 
came  from  where  they  make  little  fairies  out  of 
Carrara  marble,  yet  they  were  crooked  with- 
out and  within  ;  and  I  have  seen  them  grow  tall 
and  beautiful  and  pure,  by  the  grace  of  God 
and  the  passion  of  some  noble  woman.  That, 
after  all,  is  the  supreme  art. 

"  Music  ?  You  can  have  Grand  Opera  in 
New  York  composed  of  all  the  stars  in  the  ope- 
ratic firmament ;  yet  I  have  heard  music,  sweeter, 
better  and  truer,  sung  by  children  in  the  Settle- 
ments. 

"  I  have  seen  a  Christmas  at  Hull  House,  in 
Chicago,  which  surpassed  any  Grand  Opera.  I 
am  sure  if  angels  come  down  to  earth  and  care 
for  our  mundane  pleasures,  they  must  have  strug- 
gled for  a  front  seat  there. 

"  Fifty  children  of  nearly  all  the  races  under 
Heaven  sang  the  songs  of  their  home-land,  all 
the  way  from  those  they  used  to  sing  under  the 
dark  pines  of  Norway's  farthest  crag,  down  to 


FROM  CHAOS  TO  COSMOS       355 

those  sung  by  Sicilian  children  beneath  the  palms 
of  their  ever  sunny  land. 

"Together  they  sang  those  Heaven-born 
prophecies  of  4  Peace  on  earth,  good  will  to 
men ' ;  and  as  I  heard  the  blended  voices  of  Jews, 
Catholics,  and  Protestants,  Greeks,  Italians  and 
Syrians,  I  felt  that  the  ancient  prophecies  are  be- 
ing fulfilled,  at  least  in  spots,  on  our  then  unknown 
continent. 

"  Go  home.  Learn  to  find  pleasure  in  that 
classic  art  of  making  home.  Learn  how  to  find 
joy  in  giving  children  a  chance  to  live  and  laugh, 
to  look  towards  manhood  and  womanhood  from 
a  mountain  top  and  not  from  a  cage.  Catch  the 
rhythm  of  that  new  poetry  which  is  now  in  the 
making ;  which  speaks  in  its  sonnets  of  justice, 
in  its  epics  of  war  against  all  human  wrong  and 
in  its  lyrics  of  a  sublimer  and  a  larger  love." 

"There  comes  my  Captain  I  "  said  my  victim, 
with  a  sigh  of  relief ;  "  and  I  must  go." 

Yes,  there  he  stood  ;  all  braid  and  buttons,  or 
just  braid  and  buttons,  a  waxed  moustache,  a 
waxen  smile  and  clicking  spurs. 

Gracefully  he  bowed  as  he  offered  his  arm,  in 
such  a  charming  manner  as  could  not  be  easily  re- 
produced by  any  mere  American.  Thus  they 
left  me  to  my  solemn  musings,  while  the  living 
tide  swept  by  me,  each  drop  in  the  great  current 
antagonistic  to  the  other.  Unbidden  there  arose 
before  me  the  ship,  laden  by  human  freight, 


356  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

leaving  America,  carrying  representatives  of 
these  same  races  and  nationalities  alien  and 
hostile  to  each  other :  Slavs  and  Magyars,  arch 
foes  of  centuries'  standing  ;  Northern  and  South- 
ern Italians,  looking  with  scorn  at  one  another  ; 
Jews  and  Gentiles,  Greeks  and  Bulgarians,  Al- 
banians and  Montenegrins. 

All  of  them  had  come  out  of  the  chaos  wrought 
by  ages  of  hate  and  centuries  of  warfare.  But  in 
America,  many  of  them  had  learned  to  live  to- 
gether without  scorn  on  the  lip  or  hand  on  the 
sword-hilt. 

The  walls  which  separated  them  were  weak- 
ened, if  not  broken  down,  and  like  blind  men  they 
felt  for  one  another  in  the  dark ;  sometimes  miss- 
ing the  larger  brotherhood,  but  often  finding  it. 

The  Pentecost  of  which  prophets  and  seers 
have  dreamt,  which  is  to  repair  the  ruin  wrought 
in  the  human  family  by  the  building  of  its  towers 
of  Babel,  cannot  be  so  far  away.  The  cosmos 
may  yet  come  out  of  the  chaos,  and  there  is  no 
spot  of  earth  on  which  this  creative  act  can  be 
performed  as  well  as  in  our  America. 

The  land  is  vast  enough  and  rich  enough  ;  no 
barrier  of  language  divides  the  East  from  the 
West ;  the  North  and  the  South  are  almost  one, 
after  an  internecine  war ;  and  in  spite  of  our 
melting  of  metals  and  slaughter  of  cattle  and 
growing  of  corn — in  spite  of  souls  made  hard  and 
unresponsive  to  anything  but  money — like  the 


O  ~ai 

S  I 

'&  | 

w  8 


o    >• 

H     "% 

0  ~Z 

U      .=, 

2     .2 

c/5    "~» 

01  = 
S 

Q 
2 
< 

J 
•< 
o! 
W 
2 
M 
O 


FROM  CHAOS  TO  COSMOS        357 

cash  register  we  have  invented ;  in  spite  of  my 
Puritan  rebel  and  her  numerous  company — in 
spite  of  all  that,  our  land  is  still  full  of  dreamers 
of  dreams,  who  yet  are  awake  and  practical 
enough  to  make  their  dreams  come  true. 

"  It  is  just  like  you  Americans,"  said  General 
Riciotto  Garibaldi,  to  my  "  boys,"  as  they  stood 
together  at  the  foot  of  his  father's  monument  in 
Rome  ;  while  he  listened  to  the  story  of  their 
journeyings  in  the  immigrants'  land,  living  in 
their  huts  in  Hungary,  Poland  and  Italy,  learn- 
ing their  language  and  their  ways,  that  they  may 
know  how  to  minister  to  their  needs  over  here, 
and  bind  us  to  them  and  them  to  us.  "  It  is  just 
like  you  Americans.  We  Italians  think  about 
those  things  and  make  poetry ;  you  go  to  work 
at  a  great  dream  to  make  it  true." 

My  faith  in  the  dreams  of  the  great  dreamers 
has  never  wavered.  I  knew  that  the  prophet's 
vision  was  not  a  Fata  Morgana,  and  that  the 
words  of  the  Son  of  Man  came  straight  from  the 
fountain  of  truth.  Believing  in  them  and  believ- 
ing in  American  manhood  and  womanhood,  in 
their  altruism  and  in  their  faith,  and  believing  in 
the  essential  humanity  of  our  crowding  alien  host 
— I  believe  that  cosmos  is  being  created  and  that 
chaos  will  disappear. 

Finally,  what  we  teach  the  immigrant  by  pre- 
cept or  by  example,  he  will  become.  He  will 
bequeath  our  virtues  or  our  vices,  not  only  to  the 


358  THE  IMMIGRANT  TIDE 

next  generation  which  will  spring  with  virgin 
strength  from  his  loins  ;  but  through  thousands  of 
invisible  channels,  he  will  send  these  blessings  or 
curses  to  the  ends  of  the  earth. 

The  issues  of  the  Kingdom  of  God  in  this  gen- 
eration are  with  America. 


APPENDIX  I 


CLASSIFICATION  OF  THE  NEW  IMMIGRANT 
GROUPS 


THE  new  Immigrant  groups  which  are 
more  difficult  to  classify  according  to 
race,  nationality  and  religion : 


Name 

Bohemian 
or  Czech 


Moravians 


Poles 


Slovaks 


Wends 


The  Slavs 

i.    Western  Slavs 

Nationality 
or  political  division  Religion 

The  Kingdom  of  Bohemia    Roman  Catholic 
a  province  of  Austria        Protestant 


Moravia 
a  province  of  Austria 

Poland 
divided  by  the  European 

powers  into 
The  Russian  province  of 

Poland 
The  German  province  of 

Posen 

The  Austrian  province  of 
Galicia 

A  number  of  districts  in 

Hungary  chiefly  in  and 

near  the  Carpathians 

Settlements  in  Germany, 
Prussia  and  Saxony 

359 


Roman  Catholic 
Protestant 

Roman  Catholic 


Roman  Catholic 
Protestant 


Roman  Catholic' 
Protestant 


APPENDIX  I 


2.    Eastern  Slavs 

Russians  Russia  Greek  Orthodox 

(  Little  Russians     Southern  Russia  Greek  Orthodox 
•j  Ruthenians                Galicia  and 

^Russniaks  Hungary  Greek  Catholic 


3.    Southern  Slavs 

Servians         The  Kingdom  of  Servia         Greek  Orthodox 

some  districts  in 
Southern  Hungary  Greek  Orthodox 


Croatians  Croatia 

a  province  of  Hungary 


Roman  Catholic 

and 
Greek  Orthodox 


Montenegrins  Montenegro  Greek  Orthodox 

an  independent  principality 


Bosnians          Bosnia  and  Herzegovina       Greek  Orthodox 
and  Provinces  of  Austria  Roman  Catholic 

Herzogovinians  Mohammedan 


Dalmatians  Dalmatia  Greek  Orthodox 

a  province  of  Austria  Roman  Catholic 

Slovenes  Carinthia  Roman  Catholic 

or  Griners  Carnolia  Protestant 

Provinces  of  Austria 


Bulgarians       Czardom  of  Bulgaria 
Districts  in  Southern 
Hungary 


Greek  Orthodox 


APPENDIX  I 


Eastern  European  Groups 
Non-Slavic 

Magyars          Kingdom  of  Hungary 


Roman  Catholic 
and  Protestant 


Finns  Finland 

a  semi-independent 
province  of  Russia 

Roumanian     Kingdom  of  Roumania 


Protestant 


Greek  Orthodox 
Roman  Catholic 


Lithuanians     District  in  Russia 


Roman  Catholic 
and  Protestant 


Greeks 


Albanians 


Kingdom  of  Greece 

Albania 

a  province  of 

Turkey 


Greek  Orthodox 

Greek  Orthodox 
Roman  Catholic 

and 
Mohammedan 


Groups  from  the  Ottoman  Empire 

Armenians        Asia  Minor        Armenian  Catholic  Church 

Gregorian  Church 
Protestant 


Syrians  Syria  ( Jacobite 

a  province  of    Syrian  Church  •<  Maronite 
Turkey  (^  Ancient  Syrian 

(Roman  Catholic) 


APPENDIX  II 

NET  IMMIGRATION  TO  THE  UNITED  STATES 

1899-1908 

THERE  is  much  misapprehension  in  the 
popular  mind,  both  as  to  the  number 
of  immigrants  arriving  in  the  United 
States,    and    those    remaining    for    permanent 
residence. 

Until  1907,  all  aliens  arriving  were  enu- 
merated ;  but  of  those  departing,  no  record  was 
kept. 

The  Commissioner  General  of  Immigration 
arrived  at  the  figures  of  net  immigration  given 
below,  by  estimating  the  departures  according  to 
figures  obtained  during  four  months  in  1907, 
when  the  returning  tide  of  immigration  was 
normal. 

The  year  1908  shows  an  abnormally  small 
increase,  due  to  the  industrial  depression  in  that 
year,  when  the  returning  tide  of  immigration  was 
very  strong.  The  following  tables  show  that  a 
large  number  return  every  year,  and  I  am  inclined 
to  believe  that  the  estimated  figures  of  the  net 
increase  are  too  high,  and  that  the  permanent 
increase  of  the  foreign-born  population  cannot  be 
calculated  from  this  insufficient  data. 

362 


APPENDIX  II 


363 


tsSJ 

•-*£•*    • 

g   Z    J}    R    « 

S_     o    °*    -i 

~  j   f  1    I 

~    £     O     5    (A 

«   —   *•    e 


I  1  «' 

»i   •§    ti 

3  ll 


fe    a 


11 


O\  5»  N   ON  O< 
uvo   t^  «-^  r^ 


SO  *O  O  I'lvO  mrf-vO  rO  t>. 
t~.  ir>  »r>  CT\  LT>  o\  "<•  CT\v£>  O 
OO  CO  tr>\6  t-»vO  vO  O  "-1  SO 


ro  t~  to  O  <^SO  •*  O 
COOiT-t^Or^^ 
«•  ro  ro  uvO  »o\O  SO 


O  <*>  O»  O\  "•  t^vO  OO 
~«  O  ">  "•  •<  vr>O  N 
rOi-  voO"-1**  f>OO 


f     c     "-1   O    «£vo" 
)  M  vO    fj  H    •*  io»O 

«•>  10  j>.  o\e»o  o  " 


•* 
>  N 


O  u- 
i/S1*  *f 


O 


IN*  LO  ON  t^»  O  00  ^  t'^  tOOO 
i-'ao"  r-»oo~  r^  of  \o  o"  >A^ 
—  -*oo  ^-to«  w  oooao 
fO^^vOOOOO  O  —  «  t^. 


& 


The  net  gain  in  our  foreign  born  population 
in  the  last  ten  years  is  estimated  as  5,240,200 
which  is  68%  of  the  total  immigration. 


APPENDIX  III 
INDUSTRIAL  DEPRESSION  AND  IMMIGRATION 

THE  following  table,  giving  the  number 
of  immigrant  aliens  admitted  from 
June  30,  1907  to  June  30,  1908,  is  of 
special  interest,  because  it  shows  marked  de- 
crease during  that  period  of  industrial  de- 
pression. 

The  figures  are  from  the  report  of  the  Com- 
missioner General  of  Immigration. 

The  increase  in  the  number  of  those  from 
Roumania  is  probably  in  Jewish  immigration, 
following  a  period  of  renewed  anti-Semitic  dis- 
orders. 

Should  a  change  occur  in  the  political  status  of 
the  Russian  Jews,  a  large  decrease  of  that  group 
of  immigrants  may  be  expected.  While  it  is  not 
likely  to  occur  soon,  Jewish  immigration  will  also 
be  retarded  by  the  fact  that  the  economic  con- 
ditions in  the  Russian  empire  are  growing 
better. 

The  greatest  decrease  may  be  expected  from 
Austria-Hungary,  where  drastic  emigration  laws 
have  been  passed,  and  are  rigorously  enforced ; 

364 


APPENDIX  III 


365 


especially  against  the  Slavs,  whose  withdrawal 
in  large  numbers  has  imperilled  agricultural  and 
industrial  enterprises  in  Hungary. 


1! 


w  < 

Q  rd 
Z  w 

W  * 


E2 
22 

M     06 


5" 
Sf 

s  2" 


"*    §"K 
I  I  I  I  I  I  I  I  I  I  I  +  I  I  I  I  I     I 


'2 

a 

M 

•|s 

3  9 


J      «  E   :.-5^   i.E 

C  UJ     •  —   c     I 


i£ 

u.  5 

IS 

V   bo 

-  c 

n 

awa 


Is 
§^ 


o. 

2   a 


APPENDIX  IV 
SUGGESTED  CHANGES  IN  IMMIGRATION  LAWS 

I.  The   examination  of  all  emigrants  at  the 
port  of  embarkation. 

Objections 

(a)  The  maintenance  of  an  expensive  machin- 
ery which  will  be  hard  to  direct  and  control. 

(b)  The  possible  objections  of  the  governments 
concerned. 

(c)  The  prospective  emigrant  will  necessarily 
have  taken  the  most  serious  steps ;  and  rejection 
at  the  port  of  entry  will  not  be  a  much  greater 
misfortune  than  rejection  at  the  port  of  embar- 
kation. 

(d)  That  it  will  be  practically  impossible  for 
political  offenders  to  leave  their  country. 

II.  "That  in  addition  to  the  restriction  im- 
posed by  the  laws  at  present  in  force,  the  head 
tax  of  four  dollars  now  collected,  should  be  in- 
creased to  ten."  l 

Objection 

This  would  increase  the  number  of  immigrants 
who  come  here  without  their  families,  and  con- 
sequently would  react  upon  the  United  States 
both  morally  and  financially. 

Protect  the  Workman.     John  Mitchell,  Tkt  Outlook,  Sept  II, 
1909. 


APPENDIX  IV  367 

Suggestion 

That  the  ten  dollar  head  tax  be  collected  from 
adults,  and  that  the  present  tax  of  four  dollars  re- 
main in  force  for  children  and  possibly  for  mothers. 

III.  "That  each  immigrant,  unless  he  be  a  po- 
litical refugee,  should  bring  with  him  not  less 
than    twenty-five    dollars,   in    addition    to    the 
amount  required   to  pay  transportation  to  the 
point  where  he  expects  to  find  employment." 

There  is  no  valid  objection  to  this  demand — 
and  the  vast  majority  of  immigrants  are  able  to 
meet  it. 

IV.  "That  immigrants  between  the  ages  of  four- 
teen and  fifty  years  should  be  able  to  read  a  section 
of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  either  in 
our  language,  in  their  own  language,  or  in  the 
language  of  the  country  from  which  they  come." 

Objection 

The  demand  for  such  a  test  is  not  unreason- 
able, and  is  humane  in  that  it  exempts  the  young 
and  the  aged  ;  but  it  does  not  take  account  of 
the  fact  that  in  most  immigrant  groups,  the  ed- 
ucation of  the  woman  has  been  neglected — and 
that  the  enforcement  of  such  a  law  would  have 
the  same  effect  as  that  which  relates  to  the  in- 
crease in  the  head  tax. 

Suggestion 

That  the  literacy  test  be  not  applied  to  the 
wives  of  immigrants. 


INDEX 


ALBANIA,  300,  302,  305-307 
Amerikansky  Schtore,  108 
Anarchist,  291,  322 
Anti-Semitism,  286 
Armenia,  351 
Austria,  287 

BACON,  JUDGE,  283 
Baldwin,  302,  305-306,  309 
Beisel,  Conrad,  232 
"  Bessie,"  170  ff. 
Black  Hand,  291 

CALABRIA,  174 

Campagna,  176 

Cattero,  Boche  de,  248 

Chautauqua,  305,  309 

Chicago,  86,  87 

Chorvat,  Jan,  130  ff. 

Columbus,  244 

Connecticut,  200,  353 

Connellsville,  192,  331,  341,  344 

Constitution  of  United  States,  323 

Cracow,  description  of,  112;  ha- 
tred of  Germany  in,  113;  Jews 
in,  113;  political  condition  in, 
114 

Criminals,  322 

Czechs,  212 

DALMATIA,  conditions  in,  138; 

government,    139;  America   a 

blessing  to,  147 
Dowie,  Charles  A.,  89 

EDWARDS,  R.  H.,  334,  336,  345 
Ellis  Island,  170 
Emigrants,  views  of  Americans, 
82  ff. ;  effect  of  return  of,  72- 

75 


FANSHER,  GUY  J.,  308 

GABRIEL,  256  ff. 
Garibaldi,  357 
"  Gemeinschaft,"  222 
Greensburg,  Pa..  344 
Grose,  Howard  N.,  317 

HARRISBURG,  343 
Hartford,  315,  349,  351 
Harvard,  264-266,  340 
Hazleton,  353  ff. 
Hungary,  260,  287,  295 
Huss,  209 
Hussite  movement,  22 1 

INTRODUCTION,  letters  of,  112 

Italy,  church  of,    177;  dark  side 

of  emigration  from,  173;  effect 

of  emigration  on  Italy,  166 ;  on 

wages,  174;  on  education,  175  ; 

on   religion,  176;    on   women, 

78 ;  on  economic   conditions, 

179;  on  purchase  of  land   in, 

174 
Italians,  bad,  195 

JAMESTOWN,  306-307,  310 

Japanese  question,  194 

Jew,  the,  prevalence  of  persecu- 
tion of,  260 ;  Jewish  feeling  of 
superiority,  261  ;  religious  feel- 
ing alone  does  not  account  for 
prejudice,  262 ;  Prof.  Shaler's 
comparison  of  Jewish  and  Gen- 
tile students,  264 ;  Jewish  in- 
capacities, 267  ;  the  Orthodox, 
272;  nowhere  indigenous,  275  ; 
characteristics,  279  ff. 


368 


INDEX  369 

KISHENEFF,  277  Roberts,  Peter,  318 

Kopaniczari,   meaning  of  word,    Rohacek,  134 
93 ;    savage    appearance,   94 ;    Roosevelt,  297 
view  of  fires,  94 ;  of  cameras,    Ross,  Prof.,  335 
95  ;  of  medicine,  96  Rousseau,  241 

Kortia,  310  Roy  Sisters,  the,  132 

Ruskin,  241 

Ruthenians,  78,  190,  207 
LEWIS,  H.  S.,  282 
London  County  Council,  283 

Lo  Perfido,  Luigi,  177  SCANDERBERG,  306 

Luther,  Martin,  210,  221  Scharosh,  329,  339 

Scranton,    163,    192,    200,    331, 

34».  344 

MATERA,  177  Shaler,  Prof.  N.,  262,  266-267 

Mayflower,  The,  341  Sicilians,  339 

Medical  science  in  Trenczin,  96,  Skutari,  301,305 

97  Slavs,   progress    in   social  scale, 

Methodist  Church,  176  23 ;    slow     to    emigrate,    93 ; 

Molocani,  187  lack  of  initiative,   118;  future 

Monastir,  307  of,  1 20;  characteristics  of,  121, 

Montenegro,  Prince  of,  153 ;  min-  205  ff. ;  numerical   supremacy, 

isterof  exterior  of,  152;  festivi-  203;  condition  at  home,  204; 

ties  of,  154;  emigration  from,  dangers  in  Slavic  emigration, 

155;  neighbours  of,  156,  164;  211;     industrial    development 

legend  of  origin,  158;  national  impossible  without  them,  191; 

dress  of,  160  late  product  of  civilization,  215  ; 

an  Aryan  people,  216;  South- 
ern  group  of,    217 ;    Western 

PASSOVER,  Feast  of,  262  gro        Catholic,   218;   priests 

Pennsylvania,  334,  342  am           2         the   reformati0n 

Pietor,  Ambrosms,  223  am          22I              h           con. 

Pittston,  Pa.,  320,  345  tion  of  slo£k     *g   ideas 

Poland,   best   type   of,    116;    in  of  drink,  201 

miniature,  117 ;  federation  of,  Slovak>    siowness    of>    125-127; 

.  J.22  evangelistic  effort  among,  134; 

Police,    American,   49;    Indian-  returned  emigrants,  128,  136 

apolis ,251;  Moscow,  250;  St.  Sonnenschein,  275 

T>  Je[??kur&  2$°  sPalat°.  'SS.  248 

Polish  labourer  m  America,  65  ,«  Stary  Kray ,"  24  2$ 

Polish  nobleman,  a,  119  Stdzle'(  Charles,  317 

Polish   peasantry,    American   in-  Streator,  111.,  331-332,  338,  391 

fluence  on,  i  .8  s    ian  child^»  3*f  ^ 

Postal  Savings  Bank,  193 

TAFT,  PRESIDENT,  309 

RAGUSA,  guslar  of,   142,  149  ff. ;    Taylor,  Prof.  Graham,  200,  284 
returned    emigrants    in,    143  ;    Third  class  travel,  77,  79 
and    Coney   Island,    144;    an    Tolstoi,  241 
evening  in,  145  Trenton,  N.  ].,  195 


370 

Turk,  M.  H.,  307-308 


INDEX 


Wallachians,  78 
Watchoru,  R.,  277 
VIENNA,  UNIVERSITY  OF,  206         }Xelsh  miners>  339 

\Mlkes-Barrp.   in-r. 


WAAG,  the  River,  124 
Wages,  166 


Wilkes-Barre,  192,  238,  331,341, 
344 

Y.  M.  C.  A.,  258,  318,  323-324 


Printed  in  the    United  States  of  A  merica 


QUESTIONS  OF  THE  DAY 


ROGER  fT.  BABSON 


President  Baoson's 
Statistical  Organization 


Fundamentals  of  Prosperity 

What  They  Are  and  Where  They  Come  From. 
I2mo. 

It  is  only  necessary  to  mention  the  chapter-headings  to 
show  the  special  timeliness  of  Mr.  Babson's  book:  Hon- 
esty or  Steel  Doors?  Faith  the  Searchlight  of  Business; 
Industry  vs.  Opportunity;  Cooperation — Success  by  Help- 
ing the  Other  Fellow;  Our  Real  Resources;  Study  the 
Human  Soul;  Boost  the  Other  Fellow;  What  Truly 
Counts;  What  Figures  Show;  Where  the  Church  Falls 
Down;  The  Future  Church. 

CLARENCE  F.   BIRDSEYE      Author  of  " Rtvistd  Stat- 

111  utes  of  New  York 

American  Democracy  versus 
Prussian  Marxism 

A  Study  in  the  Nature  and  Results  of  Purposive 
or  Beneficial  Government.  8vo. 

PRO?.  E.  Me.  SAIT,  (Columbia  College),  says:  "Original 
and  stimulating  because  it  puts  the  chief  emphasis  on  the 
ends  or  purposes  of  our  Government.  Equally  novel  and 
convincing  is  its  showing  that  throughout  our  history  the 
people  of  the  nation  have  continually,  though  uncon- 
sciously, made  it  their  chief  aim  to  "secure  the  blessings 
of"  their  pure  form  of  democracy.  Opens  up  a  new  and 
interesting  field  in  the  study  of  democracy." 

P.  WHITWELL    WILSON 

The  Irish  Case  Before 

the  Court  of  Public 

Opinion 

Illustrated,  i2mo, 

"Mr.  Wilson  has  furnished 
the  best  book  in  print  to-day  to 
counteract  Sinn  Fein  oratory  in 
this  country,  and  the  circulation 
of  the  volume  will  bolster  up 
truth  and  sanity  in  a  great  many 
places  where  they  have  been 
wobbling  since  Sinn  Feiners  be- 
gan to  sell  Irish  bonds  in  the 
United  States." — The  Continent. 

MRS.  MARY  CLARK  BARNES 

Author  «/" Stories  and  Songs  for  Teaching  English* 

Neighboring  New  Americans 

i6mo. 

A  new  call  to  the  task  of  aiding  and  helping  foreign- 
born  peoples  to  a  realization  and  enjoyment  of  the  high 
privileges  <jf  American  citizenship.  Among  the  phases  of 
work  dealt  with  by  Mrs.  Barnes  in  her  able  little  book 
are:  The  Approach;  Teaching  English  to  Adults;  Co- 
operating with  Public  Schools  and  Libraries;  Church 
Neighboring;  Daily  Vacation  Bible  Schools,  etc. 


f.  WHTTWEU.  WILSON. 


LIGHT  FROM  THE  ORIENT 


.   PAUL  KAN  A  MORI 

The  Three  Hour  Sermon—on  God, 
Sin  and  Salvation 

Introduction  by  Robert  E. 
Speer. 

Here  is  a  sermon  which  has 
leen  preached  over  eight  hun- 
dred tunes  in  Japan,  and  secured 
nearly  50,000  conversions.  Rob* 
ert  1$.  Speer  says:  "Many  who 
have  heard  of  Mr.  Kanamori's 
sermon  have  wished  to  know 
how  an  able  Japanese,  with  such 
an  experience  as  Mr.  Kanamori, 
could  put  the  Christian  Message. 
I  trust  it  may  have  a  wide  circu- 
lation." 


THE 

THREE  HOUR 
3ERMON 


PAUL  KANAMORI 


SAMUEL  M.  ZffEMER,  F.R.G.S. 

A  Moslem  Seeker  After  God 

The  Life  and  Teaching  of  AI-Ghazali,  Mystic 
and  Theologian  of  the  Eleventh  Century.  Illus- 
trated. 

A  volume  of  intensely  interesting  data  concerning  the 
life,  influence  and  teaching  of  the  great  Persian  mystic 
Al-Ghazali,  one  of  the  very  greatest  figures  in  the  Mo- 
hammedam  world.  A  notable  addition  to  literature  on  tola 
subject. 

JENNIE  r.  HUGHES 

Chinese  Heart  Throbs 

With  Introduction  by  Mary  Stone,  M.D.  Illus- 
trated, I2mo. 

A  charming,  tender  series  of  sketches  and  stories  writ- 
ten by  one  who  for  many  years  has  been  a  missionary  in 
China.  Mass  Hughes  displays  a  rare  insight  into  and 
sympathy  with  the  people  of  the  Land  of  Sinim.  Her 
work  is  instinct  with  the  true  missionary  spirit,  rendered 
eminently  readable  by  many  touches  of  literary  grace. 

MRS.  LUCY  S.  BAINBRIDGE 

Jewels  from  the  Orient 

Illustrated,  I2tno. 

All  the  world  has  become  our  next  door  neighbor  in 
these  days.  _  To  know  its  homes  and  manners  of  living, 
its  superstitions  and  worship,  is  part  of  a  good  education. 
To  this  end  there  are  many  helpful  books,  among  which 
these  personal  sketches  of  real  people  in  Eastern  lands 
will  have  their  own  place. 


THE  NEW  WORLD  ORDER 

JOSEPH  FORT  NEWTON,  P.P. 

Pastor  of  The  Church  of  the  Dtvint  Paternity,  Nem  York 

The  Religious  Basis  of  a  Better 
World  Order 

By  the  Author  of  "An  Ambassador,"  etc. 


"These  sermons  speak  especially  to  cultivated  minds, 
yet  through  their  simplicity  and  naturalness  and  human- 
ness,  they  make  the  universal  appeal.  Here  is  their  real 
power.  They  do  not  speak  the  language  of  the  church, 
but  the  language  of  humanity.  They  are  real  sermons 
of  a  warm,  spiritual,  enthusiastic  manhood."  —  American 
Journal  of  Theology. 

HENRY  CHURCHILL  KING  f£re?ide?t,?f 

•  Ootrlin  College 

A  New  Mind  for  the  New  Age 

Cole  Lectures  for  1920.    izmo. 

President  King's  new  book  is  the  work  of  one  whose 
opinions  are  of  great  weight  in  these  times  of  uncertainty 
and  doubt.  Contents:  I.  The  New  Age:  Its  Evidence. 
II.  The  New  Age:  Its  Perils.  III.  The  New  Age:  Its 
Values.  IV.  The  New  Mind:  The  Political  Challenge. 
V.  The  New  Mind:  The  Educational  Challenge.  VI.  The 
New  .Mind:  The  Religious  Challenge. 

ROBERT  WELLS  VEACH,  M.A.,  P.P. 

Associate  Director  Department  of  Social  Serviee 
New  Era  Movement 

The  Meaning  of  the  War  for  Reli- 
gious Education 

I2mo. 

"A  Book  for  our  Day.  It  begins  and  ends  right  and 
deals  with  the  elements  of  reconstruction  wisely  and  in 
the  right  order.  The  book  is  strong,  the  argument  appeal- 
ing. the  conclusion  inevitable  and  the  spirit  optimistic.  It 
is  just  the  kind  of  a  book  the  Church  needs  to  read  and 
act  upon  in  these  strategic  days  of  social  unrest  and  world 
reconstruction."  —  Marion  Lawronce. 

JAMES  E.  FREEMAN,  P.P. 

Rector  of  St.  Mark's  Church,  Minneapolis,  Minn. 

Everyday  Religion 

Little  "Minneapolis  Tribune"  Sermons.  I2mo, 
cloth. 

Here  is  a  "live"  volume  of  addresses  particularly. 

The  themes  have  direct  bearing  on  the  problems  of 
every  day  existence  in  these  critical,  heart-searching  days. 
The  work  cannot  fail  to  furnish  stimulus  and  enhearten- 
ment  for  all  who  recognize  the  deeper  and  larger  problems 
«&  life. 


THE  NEW  WORLD  ORDER 


HUGH   BLACK 

"Lest  We  Forget" 

I2mo. 

Dr.  Black  subjects  Democracy, 
Patriotism,  State-Rights,  Re- 
ligion, War,  Peace,  Pacifism  and 
the  League  of  Nations  to  a  close, 
searching  scrutiny,  indicating 
how,  by  a  just  and  sane  inter- 
pretation, they  may^  be  made  to 
provide  a  larger  incentive  to 
truer  living,  and  a  finer  appre- 
hension of  the  duties  and  respon- 
sibilities of  world-citizenship. 

RT.  REP.  CHARLES  FISKE,  D.D.,LL.D. 

Bishop  Coadjutor  of  Central  Nfw  York 

The  Perils  of  Respectability 

and  Other  Studies  in  Christian  Life  and  Service 
for  Reconstruction  Days.    I2mo. 

"The  approach  to  the  great  problems  of  the  day  is  con- 
structive, with  the  spiritual  note  predominant.  There  is 
no  other  solution  for  the  conditions  which  face  the  world 
than  is  to  be  found  in  the  application  of  the  spirit  of 
Jesus  Christ  by  minister  and  layman  alike.  A  worthy  ad- 
dition to  the  library  of  any  one  who  is  interested  in  the 
promotion  of  real,  vital  religion  in  its  application  to  the 
needs  of  modern  men." — Reformed  Church  Messenger. 

J.   R.  SAUNDERS          Introduction  by  George  W.  Truett 

The  Gross  and  the  Reconstruction 
of  the  World 

I2tno. 

Dr.  Saunders  is  a  Christian  optimist.  He  is  not  un- 
mindful of  the  unrest  to-day,  but  he  believes  that  men 
must  turn  again  with  renewed  interest  towards  the  death 
of  Christ,  and  ponder  with  impetus  its  significance  for  all 
the  race.  Having  died  with  Him,  mankind  may  hence- 
forth live  unto  God,  and  find  in  this  rich  experience  the 
one_  hope  for  world  reconstruction  on  a  rock  of  certainty 
which  cannot  be  moved. 

JOSEPH  JUDSON  TAYLOR.  P.P.,  LL.D. 

The  God  of  War 

I2mo, 

An  able,  analytical  examination  of  the  place  and  power 
that  the  extolling  of  militarism  has  had  in  the  history  of 
civilization.  Having  traced  its  pernicious  path  through  the 
centuries,  the  author  turns  to  the  teachings  of  Christ,  and 
shows  by  apt  quotation  and  unanswerable  argument  that 
His  followers  cannot,  without  doing  violence  to  the  prin- 
ciples of  His  gospel  advocate  militarism,  either  in  spirit 
or  practice. 


IN  FIELDS  AFAR 


FULLERTON  L.  WALDO 

With  Grenf  ell  on  the 
Labrador 

Illustrated,  I2mo. 

An  exceptionally  full  and 
deeply  interesting  account,  not 
only  of  Dr.  Grenfell's  work,  but 
of  the  quaint,  outlandish  ways 
of  the  people  of  Newfoundland 
and  the  Labrador.  Based  on 
experiences  met  with  at  first- 
band  by  the  author. 
Whatever  "Grenfell"  books  you 
already  have,  don't  fail  to  get 
this  I 


Associate  Editor" Public 
Ledger,"  Philadelphia 


WITHCRENFELL 
ON  THE 
LABRADOR 


HUGH  PAYNE  GREELEY,  M.D. 

FLORETTA  ELMORE  GREELET 

Work  and  Play  in  the  Grenfell  Mission 

With  Introduction  by  Dr.  Wilfred  T.  GrenfelL 
Illustrated,  I2mo. 

"New  light  on  the  work  of  the  Grenfell  Mission  in  Lab- 
rador. Mrs.  Greeley's  letters  are  filled  with  vividly  written 
accounts  of  life  lived  under  the  primitive  conditions  ex- 
istent on  Pilley's  Island,  while  her  husband's  diary  tells 
of  the  difficulties  overcome  and  the  beneficent  work  ac- 
complished among  fisher  folk  in  an  isolated,  out-of-the- 
way  corner  of  the  world." — Post-Express  (Rochester). 

F.  A.   McKENZIE        Author  of  The  Tragedy  o/Kona" 

Korea's  Fight  for  Freedom 

I2tno. 

"Do  not  remain  uninformed  about  Korea.  An  amazing 
human  drama  has  been  staged  there  in  recent  months. 
Here  is  a  book  which  should  be  read.  A  great  human 
drama — inspiring,  yet  revolting — is  told  here.  If  you 
want  information  about  a  vastly  important  situation  read 
this  book." — The  Baltimore  Sun. 

VICTOR   MURDOCK     U.  S.  Federal  Trade  Commission 

China  the  Mysterious  and  Marvelous 

Illustrated,  I2mo. 

The  well-known  Editor,  Journalist  and  Congressman 
here  appears  as  the  writer  of  an  unusually  vivid  presenta- 
tion of  life  in  the  Orient  as  he,  himself,  witnessed  it.  A 
notable  and  cjuite  out-of-the-ordinary  addition  to  the 
library  of  Oriental  travel  books,  and  works  of  bright, 
captivating  description  concerning  life  in  Eastern  lands. 


BIOGRAPHY  AND  TRAVEL 


F.  A.   McKENZIE 


Author  of  Korea's  Fight 
for  Freedom" 


"Pussyfoot ' 'Johnson 

CRUSADER— REFORMER— 
A  MAN  AMONG  MEN 

With  Introduction  by  Dr. 
Wilfred  T.  Grenfell. 
Illustrated,  I2mo,  net  $1.50. 

"  'Let  Johnson  alone — more 
power  to  his  elbow.'  No  doubt 
Roosevelt  when  he  said  this  ap- 
preciated Johnson's  manliness, 
his  fearlessness,  his  loyalty  to 
high  ideals  and  that  good  nature 
which  is  a  pledge  of  fairness. 
Lovers  of  adventure  will  enjoy 
this  book." — Boston  Transcript. 


"Pussyfoot" 
Johnson 


DANIEL  BLISS 


First  President  of  the  Syrian. 
Protestant  College,  Syria 


Reminiscences  of  Daniel  Bliss 

Missionary  and  Educator.  Edited  and  Supple- 
mented by  His  Eldest  Son.  Illustrated,  net  $2.25. 

The  story  of  his  early  days;  his  term  of  service,  as 
missionary  of  the  American  Board,  in  the  Lebanon;  his 
share  in  the  formation  of  plans  which  led  to  the  creation 
of  the  Syrian  Protestant  College;  his  work  of  collecting 
funds  for  its  endowment  and  equipment,  and  his  more 
than  sixty  years  of  association  with  the  famous  Beirut  in- 
stitution, as  President  and  President-Emeritus. 

MARGARET  McGIL7ARY 

The  Dawn  of  a  New  Era  in  Syria 

Illustrated,  I2mo,  net  $2.50. 

A  deeply  interesting  account  of  what  happened  in  Syria 
during  the  past  five  years.  Not  a  mass  of  hearsay  evi- 
dence, but  authentic  data  vouched  for  by  reliable  and 
credible  witnesses,  and,  in  the  main,  within  the  personal 
knowledge  of  the  author.  This  book  possesses  historical, 
missionary  and  political  significance  of  more  than  ordinary 
value. 


MRS.  ARTHUR  PARKER 


London  Missionary  Socitty, 
Trivandram,  India 


Sadhu  Sundar  Singh 

(Called  of  God) 

Illustrated,  I2mo,  net  $1.25. 

"His  story,  ably  told  by  Mrs.  Arthur  Parker,  reads  like 
a  book  of  Apostolic  adventure.  Paul's  perils  of  waters 
and  of  robbers,  by  his  own  countrymen  and  by  the  heathen, 
in  the  city  and  in  the  wilderness,  were  Sundar  Singh's 
also.  Rejected  by  his  family  he  has  become  India's  fore- 
most evangelist." — S.  S.  Times. 


THE  LIBRARY 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
Santa  Barbara 


STACK  COLLECTION 


THIS  BOOK  IS  DUE  ON  THE  LAST  DATE 
STAMPED  BELOW. 


10m-5,'65(F4458s4)476I> 


3  1205  00098  "7592 


\K  SOUTHERN  REGONAL  LIBRARY  FACIUTV 


A     001  070  497     1 


